Kawa
by Reohawk
Summary: What if there was a middle ground between what Sarutobi and Danzo wanted for Naruto's future. In step the Elders who deliver a Naruto trained from a young age but with access to his emotions, while also creating a new branch of ninja. Naru/FemAburameOC
1. Prologue

**So here starts another story. The premise behind this is relatively simple. What if there was a middle ground between Sarutobi and Danzo? A Naruto that is trained from a young age to be strong, but that also has full access to his emotions. Enter Koharu and Homura, an underused and over-bashed set of characters and you have a beginning of a story. Naruto will not be super powered, but he will be having to take on S-rank ninja so he will be strong. Hope you like it.**

Sarutobi Hiruzen, Sandaime Hokage, sighed as his raging headache only increased in severity. It had been twelve hours since the Kyuubi had been sealed into little baby Naruto, 6 hours since he had been recalled to the Hokage position, and 1 hour since the Council meeting had been called to order.

Currently Danzo, leader of Ne and war hawk, was trying to recruit the young Jinchuriki into his program. The civilians wanted Naruto to simply be executed. He himself simply wanted Naruto to live a normal life for a few years before sending him to the academy to become a ninja.

His path was the most likely one, as there was no way he was going to allow Naruto to be executed nor let Danzo turn the boy into an emotion-less weapon like the up-and-coming Uchiha Itachi. The council was really only there to help Sarutobi come to a decision, they couldn't make a decision that went over his head. He has about to end the meeting and tell the rest of the council his decision.

But then Koharu and Homura, his old teammates, stepped into the discussion.

"Hiruzen-kun, we have an idea that we believe you should consider," said Koharu. "As you know, we have been pushing you for years to form a hunter-nin program. Homura and myself would like to take Naruto and have him become the first shinobi in the Kawa program."

"Bark, huh? We have Root to do the dark things that no one else can see and now we should have Bark that shall protect our village from the Leafs who have fallen from our great tree," remarked the Sandaime. He was actually pondering the Elders suggestion and they knew they had to come on the opportunity.

"Yes, Hiruzen-kun. We will train Naruto to protect Konoha from it's missing-nin and we will focus his aim on the A to S-class nin who have betrayed us." At this Homura paused, using the silence to gauge the Hokage's reaction to the idea.

Seeing that the Hokage had said nothing, Homura moved on. "We plan to take 2 children every year with some promise in their first year of the academy and begin to train them. We will teach every child anatomy, poisons, precise weapon throwing, stealth, tracking, and shinobi knots. After that, we shall look at their talents and teach them to be great shinobi. Naruto shall be no different. However, we plan to teach him sealing as both his mother and father were seal masters. We will also need to find another child to be Naruto's partner, as in the Kawa division a ninja will only work with one partner."

The room was silent as the council took in the proposal pitched by the Elders. They typically stayed out of most discussions, only really butting in when there was a stalemate or they felt a particularly stupid decision was being made.

Finally the Hokage spoke. "Elders, thank you so much for your suggestion. I believe it was the perfect middle ground between my suggestion, to make Naruto a normal shinobi, and Danzo's, which is to create a mindless droid. Therefore, I approve your requests to create the Kawa division and to train Naruto to become a Kawa-nin, beginning at the age of 5. You have the next five years to begin to find trainers for the boy and for the rest of the Kawa-nin who will come after him. You will also need to find a plot of land for the headquarter of Kawa and create masks that will distinguish Kawa-nin from Anbu and Ne."

Homura and Koharu looked shocked that their old teammate had agreed to their proposal while Danzo looked like he had been socked in the stomach. He had been too shocked by the Elders intervention into his plans to come up with a decent rebuttal and now he had forever lost the Jinchuriki.

The Hokage again spoke up, this time speaking to the ninja clan heads. "I know many of you have children around Naruto's ago. Would any of you like your children to become the second Kawa-nin?"

Immediately, the room flared up into conversation. The Sandaime left the ruckus go on for around five minutes before regaining control over the room. "So what are you decisions? We'll start with the Akimichi and go around the room from there."

Akimichi Chouza shook his head. "Hokage-sama, I appreciate your invitation but it is my greatest dream for my children to work with my best friends' children and this will hinder that. So my answer is no."

Yamanaka Inoichi then spoke. "My answer is the same as Chouza's. I apologize Hokage-sama."

Nara Shikaku groaned. "What they said."

Inuzuka Tsume, next in line, started speaking. "My son has already been promised to a dog-wielding clan in Hidden Grass. Part of the terms of the treaty is that he become a Chuunin. Becoming a Kawa-nin would void that treaty. I apologize."

Clearing his throat, Uchiha Fugaku began his piece. "I will not entrust one of my heirs to a program so new. I will not enable anyone to ruin the Uchiha clan, even if it is by accident. So my answer is of course no."

Frowning at the sheer rudeness that dripped off of Fugaku's tone, the Sandaime waved Hyuuga Hiashi on.

"I apologize Hokage-sama but I will be unable to lend my daughter to the this new project. As she is a main-house Hyuuga, the Hyuuga council would never let Hinata leave the village for as long as being a Kawa-nin would require."

The last member of the council, Aburame Shibi stood up. "Hokage-sama, I am perfectly willing to allow my daughter, Aburame Sorana, to become a Kawa-nin. She is the twin to my heir Aburame Shino, and because she is a female she would not normally be allowed out of the house. However, I feel it is illogical to stop strong ninjas from helping our village simply because they are female. Therefore, Sorana will be trained by the Elders to form the first partnership of Kawa-nin."

The Hokage smiled a true smile and said sincerely, "Thank you very much, Shibi. I am also very certain that the Kunoichi Association will be ecstatic to hear that the Aburame will begin to allow their females to join the ninja corps."

"Now this meeting is adjourned. Koharu, Homura, you may begin creating the Kawa division. Good day to you all."

**So that's the end of chapter 1. I warn you now that there will be a time skip several times within the next chapter. I hate writing/reading stories where the author takes 8 chapters, 3 months, and a 100,000 words to get Naruto to the genin exams. It's boring because I want action now so the next chapter will be getting Naruto to the age where he would have normally taken the genin exams. Hopefully you guys like my ideas so far and if you don't give me your input. See ya next time. **


	2. The Beginning

**I've never had a fanfic before that was so highly recognized and liked so quickly. I really appreciate all of your reviews. If you have any kinds of suggestions, tips, or mistakes that I've made, please review. It's the only way I'll get better. Thank you again and enjoy.**

Konoha had never really had a problem with missing-nin before. In its century of existence, there had never been so much as one A-ranked ninja abandon the village, so there had never been a need for a hunter-nin division like Kiri, whose shinobi left the village in droves monthly.

Of course, that had swiftly changed. Once Orochimaru had been discovered experimenting on village civilians and had been declared a missing-nin, Konoha started facing a severe problem in ninjas leaving their village.

The Will of Fire was quickly sputtering, and something had needed to change. Homura had been the instigator behind the creation of Kawa, and Koharu had backed him fully. Homura believed that when the Sandaime had let Orochimaru go free, albeit reluctantly, other shinobi with dubious loyalty started to believe that they could also run away scot-free.

Kiri had their Hunter-nin division, while Suna, Kumo, and Iwa, as well as the rest of the minor villages, all paid outside mercenary groups to deal with their missing-nin. Konoha had never had to do either, as again, ninja just didn't abandon Konoha.

Koharu had quickly thrown away the idea of bounty hunters as they weren't as effective as Kiri's hunter-nin and much more expensive than owning a hunter-nin division.

While it was less expensive, it certainly required way more footwork. Koharu was currently sitting at the head desk in the brand new building that was to be Kawa's headquarters. The building was one building over from the Hokage Tower, and looked to be just a normal storefront.

However, in the back room there was a hidden set of stairs that lead to a three story building with its own Resurrection Room, dojo, and a training room that was reinforced to take up to A-rank jutsu.

The building had only taken 2 years to build and it was now time for Koharu to start selecting the teachers who would start the beginning of a new era in Hidden Leaf.

Hatake Kakashi was immediately flagged. While he was by no means a great sensei, he knew more foreign jutsu than the Sandaime which would be invaluable in forming a group of unpredictable ninja who did not use the standard Konoha jutsu that the missing-nin had already memorized and would come to expect.

Homura would also be a tutor. He was a sealing master who easily on the level of Jiraiya. He would teach the Kawa-nin how to seal a target's head into a scroll, and how to seal weapons and other supplies as well. The two techniques required two very different types of seals.

Besides that, Homura would teach the Kawa-nin the basics. Poison, ropes, stealth, tracking, the Academy Three, and weapons. Homura had always believed in the basics and the only thing he truly excelled in besides the basics was fuinjutsu.

Koharu had also started recruiting a Nara. Nara Shikato, to be exact. He was Nara Shikaku's uncle and was even older than herself. He was a genius, as were most in the Nara family, and would be teaching the young ninja strategy, tactics, survival, and creative uses in common shinobi gear.

Next on the list was Hyuuga Kaori, a very seasoned branch house medic who would be teaching chakra control, some relatively easy medical jutsu, and first aid. And she would of course teach them taijutsu. While Kaori would not be teaching them the juuken, Hyuugas were not known as deadly taijutsu masters for nothing and would give the students a solid grounding in taijutsu before letting them choose their own style.

Kohaku Yogi was the second-to-last tutor. He came from a very small clan, the Kohaku clan, who seemed to all have a talent for weapons. Yogi was practically a prodigy at weapons. If you didn't have to throw it or shoot it, he could use it, and use it better than most practitioners of that art. He was on his last year of service to the village before he could retire and then all he would have to do was train the Kawa-nin on how to use various weapons.

She would be the last tutor, although she barely considered the job she had assigned herself to be tutoring. She would be the planner, the one who helped the learning Kawa-nin to grow into something powerful and unique. She would tell Kakashi what types of control to teach the kids and tell Kaori what kinds of styles were suitable for the type of ninja she wanted the child to be. She would also meet monthly with each trainee to get their own insight and to give them advice to make unique styles.

After all, she couldn't have her division of shinobi becoming predictable like almost every other clan in Konoha. Once a shinobi learned a little about the fighting style, it was extremely easy to learn how to take them down. The Uchiha were always rush in, get some hits, throw a Katon jutsu around, use wires, then maybe a genjutsu or two to finish the job. The Nara were the exact same way. Flash bombs, careful maneuvering, and then a shadow possession. While both were incredibly powerful combinations, there was a reason no Uchiha or Nara had ever become Hokage. The ones who were creative and unique even in using their clan skills were the ones who became truly powerful. Everyone else just hit the A-rank glass ceiling.

It was the reason why she would start training the Kawa-nin at 6 years old. That way they would have no preconceived notions and she could truly form them into something great.

**************5 years later*******************

**Naruto is now seven years old fyi. It took two years to create the Kawa headquarters. Just clearing things up.**

Naruto collapsed onto the floor of the dojo, panting heavily. Besides him, his partner Aburame Sorana, mirrored his position exactly. Kaori-sensei had kicked their asses...again. They were both still currently memorizing the katas of the Academy style. The academy style was a must for all beginners. It was fluid enough for all body types and didn't work too heavily on one set of muscles so the student could easily learn a new style without undoing years of work on their muscles.

After exactly two minutes of rest, Kaori-sensei's voice appeared over the panting from her two students. "Okay, gakutos (students), your rest period is over. You must know perform the diagnostic jutsu that I showed you a month ago to count the number of bruises and torn muscles on your partner's body. I will also use the jutsu and you will report your findings to me. If you are correct, I will move on to teaching you an actual healing jutsu. If not, we will spend another week on this jutsu."

Once their sensei had stopped explaining, her pupils got to work. Naruto went work. He performed the set of four handseals perfectly and then ran his glowing hand over his partner's form. Sorana had 10 bruises and 2 torn muscles, and thankfully Naruto got it right. Naruto only had 7 bruises and 1 torn muscles and Sorana had also gotten it right.

Kaori smiled proudly. Her students were turning out quite well. They both could know do the leaf-sticking and leaf-spinning exercise, could perform the most basic diagnostic jutsu-which only told the user the placement and number of bruises, tears, and cuts-and had most of the katas on the academy style down.

The first two Kawa-nin had only been trained for a year and it was certainly phenomenal progress. In a little less than two weeks, the next Kawa partnership would start their training and Kaori would have two new students to be proud of. She was extremely glad that she had been asked to join this program. Training others was must more satisfying than cleaning the Main House bathrooms or going on escort missions.

Kaori estimated that Naruto and Sorana would have mastered the academy style in another year and she would then help them choose a new style to learn. She also hoped to have them master tree-walking in that time and to get the pair able to set and start healing a broken bone. That would be the most serious injury that Naruto would ever be able to deal with, as his chakra control would be just horrid. Sorana would of course be trained further, and it would also mark the first time that the two had not been trained in the same thing. That was still at least a year and a half out however.

"Good job you two. Tomorrow I will begin showing you how to heal a simple cut of bruise."

"Yatta!," screamed Naruto, his feet flying off the ground as he clicked his heels together in triumph. "Did you hear that Sorana-chan! We finally did it! Now we can move on to even cooler stuff."

"Yes, Naruto-kun, I clearly heard what she said," Sorana said. "Thank you for nearly bursting my eardrums however."

"Again, I must say how proud I am of the both of you. Now, it is time for you lesson with Homura."

"Yes sensei!," they both said. Naruto ran quickly out of the dojo and towards the practice ranges where Homura had all of his lessons. Sorana walked away quickly, but not at the blistering pace that Naruto did.

A minute after Naruto arrived, Sorana walked onto the practice ranges. Today would be a double lesson. Homura would call out a spot on the human body and the pair would have to hit it with their throwing weapons. Naruto preferred shruiken while Sorana was more partial to senbon. This tested both the pairs' accuracy and their knowledge of anatomy.

"Jugular." Thunk. Thunk.

"Temple." Thunk. Thunk.

"Femoral Artery." Thunk. Thunk.

The practice went on for around an hour. As usual Homura was slightly impressed. He had been trained by the Nidaime Hokage which meant he did not impress easily. Naruto was 74 for 100 throws although 6 of the targets he hadn't even thrown because he hadn't known the answer. Sorana was 83 for 100 and had only not known the answer for 3 of the areas.

It was quite impressive. He suspected it would only be another month of so before the both of them had memorized every kill spot and every place to hurt to disable an appoint. It would still be at least another year before the kids would be a hundred percent accurate with their weapon of choice however. He was not going to stop until he was done however.

"Good practice, gakis. Now your monthly meeting with Koharu is up so go and see her."

The practice ranges, along with the dojo and training room, were on the bottom floor of headquarters. Naruto and Sorana headed up to the top office where Koharu's office sat.

The two knocked softly and entered after they heard the soft "enter." Koharu sat in her soft leather chair, padded for her overworked and tired back, and looked at the first two participants in her little experiment.

Currently only Homura and Kaori were the only ones teaching the brats. Kakashi wouldn't enter the picture until the gakis entered their 4 year of training. Shikato and Yogi would begin training in the middle of year 2.

She looked over the progress reports and as usual could not help but to be impressed. Sorana's accuracy was very impressive, as was her knowledge of anatomy. Naruto was not too far behind. They were both capable of the Henge so far, and were starting to learn about the effects of poisons, how to create them, and how to counter them.

After waiting for ten minutes, Koharu was trying to improve Naruto's patience, she started talking. "Now, I have already gone over your progress reports with Kaori and Homura and we are all very impressed. I did not call you here to talk to you about that."

"I am simply informing you that two new recruits will be joining our small little division 16 days from today. I am telling you this so that not only can you prepare to meet new people but also to inform you of some changes in training."

"You will still have the same tutors, and they will still be building on the things they have taught you, but they will also start teaching the new recruits. This is where you come in. Once a week, you will teach them a lesson from what you were taught when you were there age. There is a saying that nothing helps you learn like teaching, and that saying is most definitely true. Now that I've said my piece you are dismissed."

**Hopefully you like where this is going. Every chapter will be a timeskip. The next chapter will jump to Naruto being nine years old and Koharu and Homura telling Naruto about the Kyuubi. Also, I have made up a list of jutsu that Naruto and Sorana will be using. If you want to see any specific jutsu, just review. Also, I'm kind of stumped as to what Koharu's skill set should be. I'm leaning towards nintaijutsu, but let me know what you think. Thanks again.**


	3. Happy Birthday!

**Alright so hopefully all of you like where this is going so far. Please review.**

"Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you, happy birthday dear Naruto, happy birthday to you!"

Naruto's eyes teared up a little bit as he felt the overwhelming love and affection coming from his adopted family. Sorana-chan, Hokage-jiji, Kaori-sensei, Homura-sensei, Koharu-ba-chan, Shikato-sensei, Yogi-sensei, and Sorana's parents.

He lived by himself, although his apartment was right next to Hokage-jiji's house, and he was unused to being supported. Whenever he was in the village proper, which wasn't often as he was almost always training at headquarters, he was glared at and it made it so very easy for Naruto to forget how many people actually cared for him.

But now that cake and ice cream, with sake for the adults, was being served, Naruto could get start his favorite activity: opening PRESENTS! And to hurry the adults along so that he could get to his goal, Naruto did the thing that he did the best: yell.

"It's present time! I want my presents!" he started to yell before a whap to the head shut him up quickly. He almost started to pout before he caught the look on his attacker's face.

"Now is not the time to act up, gaki. Just be thankful for what you have," Homura-sensei scolded. His face softened after the Elder gazed into the birthday boy's eyes for several seconds. "Now, here's my present, gaki."

Naruto's face, which had fell from the Elder's harsh critique, burst into sunshine as he saw the stack of gifts on his couch. Naruto squirmed his way between his guests and jumped right onto the couch, managing to not crush any.

Seeing Homura-sensei's gift first, he quickly started unwrapping it. It was two sets of scrolls, with each set holding three scrolls. The scrolls also come with a belt that was built to hold each scroll on his hips. Naruto has been begging for more scrolls ever since Homura-sensei had begun teaching Naruto fuinjutsu over a year ago.

"Thank you, thank you, thank you! You're awesome, sensei!"

"You're very welcome, Naruto. Now don't neglect the rest of your guest," he said.

The next gift Naruto grabbed wasn't in fact a present. It was just an envelope. Naruto almost threw the card away, figuring it couldn't be anything important, before he caught Koharu-ba-chan's glare. Naruto opened the envelope and saw a seal etched into a piece of high-grade parchment.

Naruto used his amateur seal skills to try and understand it, but it was still way over his head. Confusedly, Naruto looked around to his guests hoping for an explanation.

Shibi-san spoke up. "Naruto-kun, this gift is from our whole family. Because you will be partnered with our daughter for the rest of your ninja careers, we had our clan seal masters create this for you. We will etch the seal onto the skin of your lower back. The seal is designed to mimic the scent of one of our female kikai pheromones so that Sorana will always be able to locate you without keep a kikai on you at all."

"Homura-sama has also agreed to place the seal on you tomorrow at practice. Happy birthday again," he said. This was finished by a slight twinge at the mouth, which was a full blown smile in Aburame body language.

Naruto launched off the couch into a gigantic four-way hug with the Aburame family. He was chattering and thanking them the whole time.

He eventually calmed down and moved back to the couch where the rest of his gifts lay.

Grabbing the next present blindly, he started ripping apart the wrapping in true Naruto style.

"That gift is a collaborative effort between myself and Yogi, Naruto-kun," said Kaori-sensei.

Naruto smiled. Kaori-sensei was probably his favorite sensei, with Homura-sensei in a close second.

After getting through the 20th layer of wrapping, Yogi-sensei was a bit of a prankster, Naruto finally saw what his two teachers had gotten him. It was a complete ninja kit with a shruiken holster for his left leg and a gear pouch for his back pocket. The kit was totally fitted out. The shruiken holster had 3 kunai and 15 shruiken packed inside it. The gear pouch had 150 feet on high-grade ninja wire, 5 exploding tags, 3 flash tags, and a box of makibishi.

After going through the ninja kit with the patience and experience of a seasoned ninja and putting it all back together, Naruto again exploded off the couch. He grabbed his tutors in a super-hug and squeezed with all of his might.

He went back to the couch where four presents remained. Naruto reached over to grab the second-to-last envelope in the pile but Hokage-jiji's voice quickly stopped him.

"Naruto-chan, that is the first of my two presents to you. I do not want you to open it now however. Tomorrow, after your training, I want you to come to my office at the Hokage Tower and you can open it then. I will explain everything then. Is that ok?"

"Of course, Jiji. You don't have worry about it," grinned Naruto.

He quickly got distracted by the rest of the shiny wrapped presents and he quickly grabbed the next one. He quickly opened it and knew exactly who gave him the present as soon as he saw what lie within the wrapping paper.

"Lazy-sensei, you couldn't have been any more creative than getting me my own shogi board?" whined Naruto.

"Ne, Naruto, why do you have to be so darned loud," groaned Shikato. "Can't you just thank me like everyone else."

"Thank you, Lazy-sensei," Naruto droned. His head then rocked forward as Homura's hand rocked into the back of his skull. He then said, actually sincere, "I really appreciate Lazy-sensei. Can I don't have to use your banged up set."

"Your welcome Naruto. And you of all people know I'm simply too old and lazy to get myself a new board."

Naruto laughed and then moved on to the last envelope that he would actually be able to open today.

He open the envelope and just as the previous envelope he had opened he looked confusedly at the two remaining people who "owed" him presents.

"This present is mine, Naruto-chan," said Hokage-jiji. "It's a gift card to the Bladed Leaf Weapons Store. It will cover the cost of any single weapon in the store and that's all. I realize the Sorana has already purchased two sai, but that you have not yet chosen a weapon that you like. I hope you like it."

Hokage-jiji opened his arms wide open and the blonde little ball of energy rushed into his surrogate grandfather's arms. While he saw Koharu-ba-chan and Homura-sensei every day and they helped him so much, his Jiji was always there to just hug him. He hugged his Jiji for several minutes before rushing back to the couch to open his last present.

Naruto had always open Koharu-ba-chan's presents last. She always gave him the coolest presents and she was definitely his "grandma." While Koharu-ba-chan was strict, Hokage-jiji had told him that his grandma was the reason that he was being trained and actually had a family. And for that, Naruto loved her almost more than his Jiji.

Naruto was under no illusions of what would've happened had Koharu-ba-chan and Homura-sensei not put forth the idea of the Kawa division. He would've gone through the Academy, being ridiculed because almost the entire village seemed to hate him, then go through the ranks of genin, chuunin, and jounin.

Now however he would undergo 7 years of training, from the age of 6 to 13 before becoming a fully fledged Kawa-nin. Then he would put in at least the mandatory 18 years as a part of the Kawa division before either retiring to teach even more Kawa-nin for 6 years or becoming a jounin and taking on a genin team.

Naruto knew with a certainty which option he liked better and it was all thanks to his Ba-chan. So it was with shaking hands that he turned to the last gift.

He opened the wrapping paper gently, careful to not rip any of the material. He only showed this type of caution for Koharu-ba-chan's presents. After carefully removing the paper, he pushed it aside and removed the lid from the box that hid his present.

Inside the box was a scroll, and in the middle of the scroll was a large kanji. Naruto quickly read it and went pale with shock. The kanji said, clear as day, summoning.

Koharu-ba-chan smiled quietly and started explaining. "Naru-chan, as Homura has taught you there are many different kinds of summons. There are animals, and gates, and many other things. This summon is a family summon but it is neither an animal summon nor a gate."

"I am trusting you with this because I know how much good you are capable of doing for this village. But beyond that, I love you and this shall protect you on the missions that I will have to send you on as your commander."

"My family is the holder of over 10 different summoning contracts, although only two of them are actually animal summons. This particular summon is actually a tree. It is called the Kashiwagi no Shinkirou, or the Oak Tree of Mirages."

"It is called this for the powerful effects the summon has on opponents. Once summoned, the oak immediately starts shedding leaves. If your opponent even catches sight of a leaf, they are caught in a genjutsu although being touched by one makes it even harder to break the illusion."

"The illusion first starts by calming the opponent's mind and erasing all traces of adrenaline from the system. After that, the opponent falls into an almost hypnotic state where they become extremely pliant and docile."

"Now, this illusion is not unbreakable or unbeatable. The byakugan has broken it several times, but dozens of Hyuuga have still been caught in it. The sharingan also seems to be able to break out occasionally. Other ninjas who have escaped were not close enough to the oak tree or were able to get out of range before they completely fell under the genjutsu."

"Also, when the leaves come in contact with your opponent's skin, they leave behind a mild paralytic poison that will hamper your opponent but stronger opponents can shake off the effects rather easily if not applied in huge doses."

"This summon is extremely powerful and is the main reason why I was bumped up from an A-rank to an S-rank summon will be your genjutsu, as your chakra control currently isn't up to snuff. Also, beware this summon requires as much chakra to summon as a Boss summon so you will need quite a bit more chakra to summon it but I believe in you."

"Now come and give your ba-chan a hug," Koharu finished. Naruto was in her arms a second later, blubbering about how he would make her proud. She smiled. She wasn't much for emotions, but this warmed even her death-chilled heart.

The rest of the guests shuffled out of Naruto's apartment, leaving the two family members to themselves. Koharu stood, holding Naruto in her arms, and tucked him into bed. She waited until he fell asleep before leaving her grandson's room and cleaning up the mess he had made.

***********The Next Day***************

Naruto jauntily made his way to the Hokage Tower. He was in an absolutely great mood. He had a new seal on his lower back that proved the Aburame's trust in him, he had a powerful new summon, and above all else-he was absolutely and unconditionally loved.

Naruto was ushered right into his Jiji's office by the secretary and immediately sat in the superbly comfortable chairs in front of the gigantic desk.

"Hiya, Jiji!," he exclaimed. "What'd you want to see me for?"

"Well firstly, Naruto-chan, did you bring my second present with you?"

"Of course I did!," Naruto yelled. "What do you take me for! An Idiot!"

The Sandaime chuckled. "Of course not, Naruto-chan. You can now proceed with opening your last present."

"Yatta! I've been waiting all day for this." Naruto proceed to slit open the envelope with his finger before emptying the envelope of its contents. All that was in there was a picture.

The picture depicted a slightly pregnant red-headed woman. She was extremely beautiful and had a Konoha forehead protector. There was also a tall blonde haired man in the photo who had his arm wrapped around the woman. He had bright blue eyes and a shiny smile. He wore a very recognizable jacket and Naruto immediately pegged him as the Yondaime.

He turned to his Jiji, his face twisting cutely from his confusion. "Why'd you give me a picture of the Yondaime? And who is the pregnant chick?"

The Sandaime chuckled at Naruto's question. "Before I answer those questions, Naruto, I must first explain why I did not tell you what I am about to explain beforehand. This is a S-class secret, and I did not feel that you were mature enough to handle this burden. Now you are, however. I just hope that you are not angry with me after I unload all of the information that I've kept from you for so long. I also ask that you do not speak until I am completely done explaining myself."

Naruto squirmed in his seat from the amount of guilt that was present in Hokage-jiji's voice.

"The reason I gave you that picture, Naruto," the Hokage paused here. "Is that those two people are your parents. The Yondaime, Namikaze Minato, is your father. The pregnant woman, who just so happens to be pregnant with you in that picture, is your mother, Uzumaki Kushina. They both died during the Kyuubi attack."

"They both loved you so very dearly, and would be so very proud of how skilled you are and how you are growing up. The reason that I withheld this information from you is because of the many enemies that they had. Your father killed half of the Iwa shinobi corps in the most recent war and Iwa would most certainly have sent assassins after you if I had allowed you to keep your father's name or if you had blabbed about who your father truly was."

"Your mother also made many enemies. Not only was she an S-rank shinobi like your father, she was also a Jinchuriki. I realize you do not know what a jinchuriki is, so let me explain."

"A jinchuriki is a person who has a bijuu, one of the tailed beasts, sealed inside their body. Your mother contained the Kyuubi, and was wanted by many villages from the Kyuubi's immeasurable strength. You may have been kidnapped if it had been known that you were her son, as many villages would want to see what would become of a son of the Kyuubi jinchuriki."

"Your mother being a jinchuriki also leads me to the next piece of information that has also been withheld from you."

"As you know, the Kyuubi attacked Konoha on October 10th nine years ago. This happened because your mother's seal that contained the Kyuubi weakened severely when she was giving birth to you. This is not your fault at all, so do not feel bad. Something went wrong with the seal and the Kyuubi escaped, killing your mother. Your father immediately went after the Kyuubi with you in his arms."

"You have learned that the Yondaime, your father, killed the Kyuubi. This is not true however. It is absolutely impossible to kill a bijuu. Instead, the Yondaime sealed the Kyuubi inside of you. You, just like your mother before you, are a hero who keeps the Kyuubi's wrath at bay."

The Sandaime had said his piece and he now wanted to see how Naruto had reacted. He knew that he had just dumped a lot on Naruto, too much some would see, but he didn't see any other way of telling the boy without injuring even more of the trust Naruto currently had in his jiji.

Naruto was currently looking at the photo of his parents, tear tracks flowing down his cheeks. "Th...they really, really loved me?" he asked, his voice shaky and stuttering.

"Yes, Naruto. Your mother was exactly like you, easily excited, and I have never seen her more excited than when she found out that she was pregnant with you. Your father actually jumped through a ceiling he was so excited about the news."

Naruto's voice strengthened. "Then I won't let them down by ever letting the Kyuubi get out. My parents died to protect me, to protect the village, and I'll make them proud of me."

Sarutobi looked at the young boy, blown away at how easily Naruto was taking it. He may have more of the vaunted "Will of Fire" than any shinobi the elderly Hokage had ever met.

"They are already proud of you. And I must say, I am prouder of you now than I ever have been before."

Naruto looked at his Jiji with teary, red-rimmed eyes. Then, just as he did yesterday, Hokage-jiji opened his arms and Naruto buried his body between them.

"Everything's going to be okay Naruto," the Sandaime crooned. "I love you, Koharu loves, your whole family loves you. Now just let it all out."

The Sandaime sat there the rest of the day, his arms wrapped around the boy he loved like a grandson, rocking him as he cried and then eventually fell asleep.

**So basically imagine the scrolls that Homura got for Naruto as the ones Naruto wears in the Dragon Sword movie. Hopefully you guys like the summoning contract that I came up with and I also tried to not make it super-powered. Hopefully the chapter wasn't too mushy. Also, next chapter will have Naruto meeting Kakashi and the Kyuubi. Remember, Review!**


	4. Testing

**So we have yet another set of timeskips. Hopefully you guys all like how I'm going through with explaining everything. This chapter will expand a lot on Naruto's and Sorana's skill set. Also, I lied-this chapter does not cover Naruto meeting the Kyuubi. I had it written in the plot but I didn't like how it came out so I scratched it. It'll happen eventually though. Enjoy.**

*********1 year later****************

"Hello, Naruto-san, Sorana-san, it is nice to meet you," said their strange new sensei. He had gravity defying silver hair and wore his hitae-ate across his eye, which confused both of his students. "I am Hatake Kakashi, although you can call me Kakashi-sensei or even Kaka-sensei."

"Hi Kaka-sensei," the duo chorused.

"Now, as you have probably heard I will be your ninjutsu teacher. Before I even give you a single jutsu, I must go over some things with you."

"I am renowned as a master of over a thousand jutsus. This is entirely false. I merely know over a thousand jutsu, closer to 1,300 at the moment. As many jutsu as I have, I can honestly say that I've only used about 200 of them in battle, and maybe 50 jutsu in more than 1 battle."

"Now the point that I'm getting across here is that while I will be teaching you a lot of jutsu, do not expect to master all the jutsu. Some of the jutsu I teach you just won't "feel" right while others will not fit into the type of shinobi that you are already becoming."

"For example, Sorana, you do not yet have a large chakra capacity, nor will you ever with you kikai feasting on a quarter of your reserves everyday. Therefore, you will probably not use jutsu that require a large use of chakra."

"Now this training will be very different than the training that you have been going through so far. I am your only sensei who is still on active duty in the ninja corps, and so I will not be training you daily, or even weekly."

"Instead, I have recorded every single jutsu that I have ever learned or copied with my sharingan. I will give you a list of 25 jutsu that I think would sit with you well, but it is your decision on whether or not to learn them. I will also leave the master copy of all my jutsu in Koharu-sama's office. You can go in there whenever you like."

"There is also a list of jutsu that all Kawa-nin are required to learn. It's a list of around 10 or so and they are jutsu that Koharu actually created solely for this purpose, I copied from Anbu from different villages, or Anbu from our own village. You will be required to learn 5 of these jutsu before you receive the scroll of jutsu that I have already prepared for you."

"This five jutsu are as follows: Heki Hando Aizu no Jutsu, Nemuri no Jutsu, Doton: Iwagakure no Jutsu, Raiton: Denkyuu no Jutsu, and Suiton: Koku no Jutsu. Here are the scrolls that contain the information on the jutsu. You will have 5 hours a week to learn the jutsu. Oh and before I go, channel some chakra into these cards. Tell Koharu-sama what happened and then ask her what it means. See you in a month. Ja ne."

The two students watched their sensei disappear and then turned to look at each other in confusion.

"Did you catch all of that Sorana-chan? I kind of zoned out while he was talking. I thought he was going to teach us jutsu but then he just kept talking and talking and talking and talking."

"Yes, Naruto-kun. I will of course fill you in on what you missed. First of all, we are supposed to channel our chakra into these cards. Kaka-sensei said that we will have to ask Koharu-sama what happens after we follow his instructions. I suggest that we go to see Koharu-sama before we do anything. Is that acceptable to you?" she asked.

"Sure thing, Sorana-chan! You always know what to do best," he said.

Sorana headed over to the stairs to head up to Koharu's office, with Naruto running to catch up to her.

As usual, they knocked before waiting for a couple of seconds before Koharu allowed them in. Koharu glanced up from her work before her eyebrows scrunched in confusion at seeing the first of her Kawa-nin. She was incredibly proud of them, as she was proud of the 4 other up-and-coming Kawa partnerships.

"It isn't time for your monthly check-ups, so I must ask why are you here?"

"C'mon Koharu-ba-chan, can't I just visit my favorite grandma?" Naruto pouted.

"Shush, Naru-chan. We had dinner just last night," Koharu said, smiling at the memory. "Now what do you need?"

"Kaka-sensei left us these white cards and said to channel our chakra into them. We wanted you to be there to see what happened," spoke up Sorana.

"That was a very wise decision," Koharu stated. "Kakashi-san is a very talented ninja, but he can be a bit lazy and is always tardy. I did not think that he would hand this test off on me however. But alas, there is nothing that I can do. Now, channel your chakra into the cards and I will explain everything afterwards."

The nin nodded and Sorana handed one of the cards to Naruto before channeling her chakra into the card. It crinkled immediately and in less than a second was a compact ball in the palm of her hand.

She turned her attention to Naruto's card. One half of the card immediately soaked, while the other crumbled away into dust.

Afterwards, she turned to Koharu-sama, her face twisted in confusion. "Those cards that Kakashi-san gave the two of you is the way that Konoha ascertains the elemental affinity of our ninja. An elemental affinity is very key for any ninja. Almost all ninjutsu are elemental jutsus. Having an elemental affinity gives you more power for less chakra."

"This is with no training in elemental affinities. There are 2 levels of training in each element. After each level of training, you have use less and less chakra and get more power, although this of course only works for your element."

"Now there are five elements: Fire, Lightning, Water, Earth, and Wind. These elements obviously relate to the five elemental releases Katon, Raiton, Suiton, Doton, and Fuuton."

"Since there are five elements, there are five different reactions to chakra within the cards. Wind natured chakra cuts the card, fire burns it, lightning crinkles the card, earth turns the card to dust, and water makes the card wet."

"As you two may have now surmised, Sorana, you are affiliated with lightning. this is extremely surprising as most Aburame are quite good with Doton jutsu. Lightning is often called the assassination element, as many of the jutsu does exactly that. Lightning is also the second-least chakra intensive element and is extremely useful for weapons user. Lightning will also be particularly useful for you Sorana, as you will be able to charge your kikai with lightning. This will add another form of damage, electrical burns and chakra drain should prove to be quite a deadly combination."

"Naruto, you have what is known as a dual-affinity. In this situation, whichever reaction happens first is your strong affinity. As your card got wet first, you have a strong Suiton ability. This makes quite a lot of sense, as the Uzumaki as a whole was quite famous for their powerful Suiton jutsu and it seems that Kushina passed this on to you. Suiton is kind of the jack-of-all trades element. It is right in the middle in terms chakra drain and has many different uses in battle."

"You also have a smaller affinity to Doton jutsu. Doton is the least intensive in terms of chakra and is typically called the defensive element. There are very little offensive jutsu, but many defensive or capture jutsu. I am quite puzzled as to how you ended up with this affinity as your father only had a powerful Fuuton affinity. I actually expected you to only have a Fuuton ability, but the Suiton/Doton affinities will serve you much better as Kawa-nin."

"Now that we have figured out your affinities, you will spend a half hour a day on mastering the first level of your affinities. The reason I do not give you any more time than that is because these exercises are very frustrating and I don't want you to become discouraged. It is also not overly important for you to master these exercises and I don't want to take away from the rest of your training."

********2 years later********

"Naruto, Sorana, today we start the last year of your training," said Homura-sensei. "It will be extremely personalized from now on and you will tell your teachers what you want to learn, instead of the opposite like it used to be. Before we get to that, however, we have a couple of tests set up for you."

"The first test is for you to tell us where you think your skills currently are. It is incredibly important for a ninja to know what their limits are, and this is a great way to test this. Sorana, you may go first."

"Yes, sensei," she said. "I am quite skilled, around chuunin level, with the Aburame clan style, the Bengoken. As you know, it revolves mainly around defending and blocking strikes until my allies can drain my opponent. I am able to last five minutes in a straight taijutsu spar against a jounin."

"I have mastered all 8 of the Kawa-nin jutsu, the original five Kaka-sensei assigned us, along with the Katon: Shitai Konzetsu no Jutsu, the Chakura Kaori no Jutsu, and the Raiton: Yuntsu no Hashira Sokubaku no Jutsu."

"Also speaking of ninjutsu, I have mastered the first exercise of mastering Raiton chakra and currently have two Raiton jutsu mastered. I have also mastered Jiraiya's Hari Jizou no Jutsu."

"I have mastered all of the chakra control exercises up to water walking and am capable of breaking genjutsu up to B-rank. I currently have 2 Magen illusions mastered."

"I can mix up 8 different poisons, tie up a jounin-level ninja, throw senbon with 95% accuracy, and can seal weapons and heads into scrolls."

"I am extremely able when I use my two sai. I am much more proficient in weapons than I am in taijutsu and I have been able to beat a jounin going weapon against weapon using my sai."

"Lastly are my clan abilities. As you may or may not be able, there are 3 different hives that the Aburame use. The first type of hive is our termite beetles. As all our hives do, they have the ability to drain chakra from an opponent. The termite beetles are the most common type of beetle among the Aburame. These particular beetles have large mandibles that allow them to eat through flesh and wood quite easily."

"The second type of hive is our song beetles. They are able to create subtle genjutsus by rubbing their back legs together. Most of the female Aburame have these beetles as well as 5% of the male population."

"The last hive, and the type of hive that I have, is reserved for the Clan Head's Line, of which I am a part of. These are our sting beetles. Not only can these beetles channel elemental chakra beyond the abilities of the other types of beetles. Beyond that, they also have a small stinger and are full of poison."

"I am able to do the Mushi Bunshin, Mushi Kabe, and the Mushi Dama with my allies and I am still working on being able to channel Raiton chakra through them."

As Sorana finished up her self-assessment, Koharu was suddenly struck by how changed the little Aburame was. Where once a silent little girl stood, Sorana was completely changed.

She wore her black hair long, although she had it tied into an ornate ponytail with 3 polished senbon holding it into place. She wore the classic Aburame sunglasses but not the classic Aburame jacket. In its place she wore a more form-fitting ice blue jacket but with the same billowing sleeves that all Aburame jackets had. She has baggy black pants with her senbon pouch wrapped onto her left thigh.

She was quite a striking young woman, and Naruto stood just as striking beside her. Her wore long flowing black pants that he left unwrapped along with the usual blue shinobi sandals, the same as Sorana's. His shruiken pouch was tied to his right thigh. He wore a mesh shirt that went to his elbows and then a charcoal gray shirt that went down to his biceps. He had six scrolls set on his belt, with the scrolls tilted upwards for easy access. On his right hand, he had a bulky orange glove that was covered in seals and has three metal slits on the hand. His shining blonde hair was unrestricted by anything.

Koharu spoke up first. "I am very proud of you, Sorana-chan. That was a very precise assessment and you did not exaggerate on anything, nor did you underrate yourself. You have grown into a fine kunoichi and the last year of your training will only see your skills skyrocketing."

Sorana smiled a true blue smile, a very rare thing coming from an Aburame.

"Now it is your turn, Naru-chan," Koharu said.

"Alright, so I use a taijutsu style called the Isskyaku, or the Water Current Leg. The style revolves around attacks with the leg and blocking and grabbing with the arms. I can easily beat a chuunin and beat some jounins who haven't focused on taijutsu. I have also, finally might I add, found a weapon that I actually like. I started training with a surujin, a weight and spike connected by a 3-foot length of chain. I'm able to beat chuunin with the surujin, but I'm not yet skilled enough to take on jounin."

"Like Sorana-chan, I can concoct various poisons, tie up jounin level ninja, throw shruiken with 95% accuracy. I can seal weapons and heads and I have even started experimenting with my own seals. This glove is my own invention, and using seals and some chakra, I can send three blades of wind or three gouts of fire at the enemy."

"As for genjutsu, I am almost totally inept, except for my summon the Kashiwagi no Shinkirou, which I only managed to summon two months ago. I can however dispel genjutsu up to B-rank."

"As for ninjutsu, I have mastered the Suiton level 1 training exercise and I am extremely close to mastering the Doton one. I have mastered all eight of the Kawa-nin jutsus and I have mastered 2 Suiton and 2 Doton ninjutsus."

Naruto scratched his head. "Eh, so I'm pretty sure that that's all of it. Did I miss anything?"

"No, Naruto, I think you covered everything. I'm just as proud of you as I am Sorana," said Homura-sensei. "Both of you passed the first test, but your second one you will have to figure out for ..."

With that, the ceiling caved in and three nin fell down into the room with ceiling. Homura and Koharu, the only other two people inside the building, were knocked out by the falling rafter.

The three enemy nin, who by their hitae-ates belonged to Kiri, rushed to the downed Elders. Two of the ninja were immediately blocked by a swarm of kikai, while the other's progress was halted by the spiked end of Naruto's surujin.

Naruto ended the stand-off with a throw of shruiken at each target before charging at the nearest enemy. He knew that Sorana could hold off one while her Kikai led the last opponent towards a water tank.

His opponent pulled out two kunai, but Naruto knocked them away with a swing of his surujin. He then got in close and jumped before spinning into a kick. It knocked his opponent away before he saw that Sorana's kikai had corralled the third opponent close enough to the water tank. He threw a shruiken with an exploding tag at the wall that blocked the water tank from view before creating a Mizu Bunshin from the water spilling from the ruptured tank.

His Mizu Bunshin immediately formed a Suiton: Suirou and captured the dazed opponent inside of it. The opponent that he had kicked away had come back for more punishment. Naruto feinted with a kick, before swinging the weighted end of his surujin into the nin's head. He was immediately knocked unconscious.

Looking at his partner, he saw that she had her opponent under a genjutsu of some kind, probably a Magen illusion, and held a kunai right next to his jugular. Nodding at her, she reversed her hold on the kunai and she smashed the blunt edge into her opponent's skull.

As one, they turned back to the opponent held in the water globe. Then hearing a groan of pain from near the rafters, the partners turned back to the downed Elders...except they weren't downed at all.

They were standing, uninjured and smiling, right next to the rafter that had apparently fallen on them. "Congratulations you two. You passed spectacularly."

"The three ninja that you so easily took out were Chuunin of the Leaf. You took them down quite impressively, although you must remember they were told not to use lethal force nor could they use any of their clan's special techniques least they tip you off to what we were up to."

"Now, this test is two-fold. The first objective was to see how you handled yourselves in combat, as neither of you have ever been out in the field. In that regard, you performed excellently. You took down your opponents easily and efficiently."

"The second objective was showing you to always avoid becoming to specialized. All three of the chuunin in front of you come from major clans in Konoha. They use almost exclusively their clan techniques and as soon as that was taken away, all they had to rely on was taijutsu."

"If they were ever sent on a Black Ops mission and could not use their clan techniques so as to not implicate Konoha, they would be, pardon my language, screwed. This is just one example of the many warnings that have been given out over not overspecializing. Unfortunately, so many people have no listened to our warnings."

"But you have, and we are so very proud of you. Now prepare yourselves for the most grueling year of your lives."

**Jutsu List**

Mushi Dama no Jutsu [Insect Sphere Technique]

Rank: C

Description: The Aburame form a sphere of bugs around their enemies to suck out their chakra.

Mushi Kabe no Jutsu [Insect Wall Technique]

Rank: B

Description: The Aburame form a spinning wall of bugs to protect themselves from attack. It is very strong but can be pierced.

Hari Jizou no Jutsu [Underworld Guardian Spikes Technique]

Rank: B

Description: After forming the handseals, the user's hair will grow in length to surround and protect the body. The hair becomes rigid and spiked, forming a layer of protection.

Heki Hando Aizu no Jutsu [False Handseal Technique]  
>Rank: E<br>Description: This is a skill where the user's hands seem to perform a jutsu correctly without the proper handseals. This is intended to deceive opponents, making it impossible to discern what the true jutsu being performed is by handseals alone. It can even be used to make the handseals look like the correct seals for a jutsu of the same rank the user knows. Obviously, the user is still performing the correct seals, but their opponent can't see that. This technique requires no handseals.

Nemuri no Jutsu [Sleep Technique]  
>Rank: D<br>Description: A Genjutsu technique where the ninja places their hand on their target's shoulder and forces them into a deep slumber. A useful technique when subterfuge is involved with a mission, but utterly useless in combat. The technique only works when the target is already injured or exhausted.

Doton: Iwagakure no Jutsu [Earth Release: Rocking Hiding Technique]

Rank: C

Description: This jutsu allows the user to blend in and merge with surrounding rocks. It allows the user to move unseen, which assists in attacking and escaping.

Katon: Shitai Konzetsu no Jutsu [Fire Release: Corpse Extermination Technique]  
>Rank: B<br>Description: This is the skill ANBU use to eradicate corpses, for various reasons like containing important secrets. The jutsu creates a small, hot-burning fire that releases no smoke. It quickly consumes a corpse.

Chakura Kaori no Jutsu [Chakra Scent Technique]  
>Rank: A<br>Requirements: None.  
>Description: Generally used at the scene of a crime, the user's chakra forms into a black dog. This dog is able to sniff out the various "chakra scents" somewhere, so long as the chakra was last used less then a day ago, separating them based on both user and element used. Once a "chakra scent" is detected, the dog will be capable of tracking the scent so long as they don't fall at least a day behind the target. This dog is able to last for a day, and is destroyed by one hit. As it takes the dog a few minutes to actually pick up a scent, it is useless in battle.<p>

Raiton: Denkyuu no Jutsu [Light bulb Technique]  
>Rank: D<br>Description: After performing the needed hand seals, a ball of light, about the size of a baseball, will appear in the hand of the user. This would allow them to see better when traveling around at night. It will wear away after five minutes of use.

Suiton: Koku no Jutsu [Water Release: Black Rain Technique]  
>Rank: C<br>Requirements: None.  
>Description: The user creates a black mist that will emit from their body and rise up toward the sky. A temporary flammable rain of oil is released upon the user's specific targeted area. Used by Kawa-nin to burn away evidence of their coming without leaving a behind a Katon chakra residue.<p>

Raiton: Yuntsu no Hashira Sokubaku no Jutsu[Lightning Release: Four Pillar Binding Technique]  
>Rank: A<br>Requirements: None  
>Description: Four pillars of rock are formed and instantly emit strong sparks of electricity that trap the target within<p>

**So how did you like it? How was the first action scene? How do you like me just writing the technique name without the translation in the actual story and leaving the translation to the end of the chapter. Let me know so please please please review. **


	5. First Blood

**Please review. The only way that I can make this fic better is if you review. Please, put your input into this fic. I am willing to take your suggestions into account and this story's plot definitely isn't set into stone yet so I will be extremely flexible. **

**Oh, and since I haven't done this yet: I do not own Naruto, which is obvious since this story is on and not a manga. Although, the Kawa division and all of the OCs are totally mine. **

**REVIEW!**

*******1 year later*********

Naruto stood in front of the Elders and Hokage-jiji. Standing next to him, as she always did, was his best friend and partner Sorana-chan.

"Greetings, Naruto, Sorana," said Koharu-ba-chan. "Today is the day you become full-fledged Kawa-nin. You have trained for seven hard years, and today is the culmination of every drip of sweat and every second spent in a hospital bed."

"Today is the day that you receive your masks and codenames. As you know, in Anbu, operators are named after animals while Ne members are simply numbered. In Kawa, however, partners will be named two opposites that come together to make a whole."

"Partnership is a vital role in our division, and your codenames will reflect this. Two opposites that combine to form something better and stronger than the two original parts. To this effect, we have chosen your names."

"Sorana, you are efficiency put into a human form. You are quick, silent, and organized, the perfect model for any burgeoning shinobi. You will be Yin."

"Naruto, you are the very epitome of loud. You make scenes, you wear your emotions on your sleeves, and your mind is cluttered but you make it work for you. You shall be called Yang."

"Together, loud and quiet, brash and reserved, soft and hard, you complement each other perfectly and you have and will be a wonderful team. I can only hope the teams who come after you work just as well together."

Koharu stepped forward to the duo, who had went down on their knees as soon as Koharu has started talking. "Put on your masks," she said, handing the two masks to the now standing partners.

Naruto and Sorana first glanced at the masks, taking in the fine details of the mask. Sorana's mask was almost completely white, except for a black circle where her right eye would've been and the left bottom corner also swirled into black. Naruto's mask was the complete opposite. His mask was mostly black with a white circle that hovered over where the left side of his mouth was. In the upper right corner of his mask, a circle of white was beginning to take shape.

After placing the mask on his face, Naruto felt the seals covering the inside edge of the mask activate. Instantly, the mask stuck to his face without the use of straps, and the mask would not disconnect until he pushed chakra into the forehead of the mask. The mask also turned slightly opaque, as he could know use his peripherals, while he felt his breath go straight through the mask and he could suddenly smell everything around him.

The wonders of fuinjutsu never ceased to amaze Naruto and this was no exception. he had never thought that an Anbu mask would be so comfortable but he felt like silk was caressing his face.

After getting over the slight weight on his face and the unique view it gave him, he turned back to the Elders, his mask hiding the slight smirk on his face. He was sure though that Sorana-chan's face was just as blank as her mask. She was just too good at controlling her emotions. He'd never really gotten the hang of it.

"Now that you have been outfitted, it is time for your first mission. We've giving you a softball, as it's your first mission. You are being sent after 3 chuunin who abandoned the Leaf 8 years ago. They were a genin team together, so their teamwork should be as flawless as your own."

"All three of them are ranked as a middle B-class threat, so you be somewhat careful. You are to kill all of them and dispose of their bodies except for the heads, which you already know. The team is made up of Kurama Jien, very skilled in genjutsu, Nara Shikayaku, the leader and tactician, and Maito Hanako, the team's brawler."

"The most recent intel puts the team in Tea Country, near the middle of the country. You will have to find them for yourselves as we haven't been able to get any more information than that. I am still working on fully establishing Kawa's spy ring, as even 13 years isn't enough to get the kind of info to find where powerful traitors are hiding out."

"Good luck, you two, you have an hour to pack before heading towards Tea Country."

Naruto and Sorana nodded, before slipping into a Shunshin to head to their respective houses. Naruto still lived in the apartment next to the Sarutobi compound, while Sorana lived with her parents in the Aburame district.

Naruto surveyed the equipment in front of him. He had his camping gear, clothing, and food, sealed into one of the scrolls that he wore on his waist, and then a couple hundred extra shruiken, a dozen extra each of kunai and explosion tags. He also added a spool of ninja wire into the pile before sealing it into his last empty scroll on his belt. The other four scrolls were for battles only.

The packing had only taken half an hour, most of his stuff had already been sealed. Naruto had just had to check over everything to make sure it was all still in good shape. Seeing the amount of time left, Naruto did the only thing he could think of: go to Ichiraku's!

After a filling meal, over 20 meals of ramen, Naruto headed to the main gate. Sorana was already there, she was always early, but it didn't look like she was waiting that long. After flashing their badges at Izumo and Kotetsu, the eternal gate guards, they were let out of the village.

Naruto immediately hopped into a tree, with Sorana following quickly after him. The journey to Tea Country would take two full days, so the duo had to get started quickly. They both knew they had to get to the area that the former Konoha-nins had last been seen at or they could quickly lose their targets.

The two Kawa-nin spent the day tree-jumping in relative quiet, wrapped in the companionable silence that only true friendship can bring.

The two stopped their exercise right before the sun set fully. The two unsealed their tents and then went about their duties. Naruto set up both tents while Sorana set up the fire.

A few hours later, with the remains of two small rabbits piled onto the fire, Naruto turned to his partner. "Ne, Sorana-chan?"

"Yes, Naruto-kun?"

"You know how I have the Kyuubi sealed inside me?" Naruto asked, before seeing Sorana nod at the rhetorical question. "Homura-sensei wants me to start learning how to tap into its chakra. And I don't really know how I should feel. This...thing inside of me killed my kaa-san and hundreds of people in Konoha. But on the other hand, my dad sealed it into me for a reason and it seems like such a waste to let all that power go to waste."

"It is a very difficult issue to make sense of, Naruto-kun. But can I first tell you something before I explain to you what I think you should do?"

"As an Aburame, many civilians and even some ninja are scared of the bugs that we as a clan hold inside of us. I've never told you this, but I appreciated it so much when you didn't even flinch when I told you about the kikai crawling under my skin. But that's not the point."

"The hives within me and within all of the Aburame have killed hundreds, maybe thousands, of people in the various wars and battles that the Leaf has participated in. The Kyuubi has also killed thousands of people. Just as I harness the powers of my hive for good, so I believe that you should harness the Kyuubi's power."

"I know that it hurts you that the power inside of you caused your mother to be killed, but I believe that you are looking at all of this the wrong way. Do not think of the people that have met their end at the chakra of the Kyuubi, think instead of all the people you can save by utilizing its power."

"You will be making your parents' sacrifices worthwhile, and making such an enormous force for evil in the world fight for the side of good for the rest of your life. When you look at it like that, how can you do anything but begin to learn to use the Kyuubi's chakra?"

Sorana suddenly found her arms full of a very emotional Naruto. Growing up and training with him over the last 7 years, she had very often had to deal with the diving Naruto hug. she knew the only thing she could do was to give him the physical contact that he seemed to so crave, and that she had so rarely received in her own life.

Naruto's red-rimmed eyes looked up into her own, before he sniffled. "You're awesome, Sorana-chan. I don't know what I'd do without you. I never would have come up with an idea like that. Thank you. Thank you for stopping me from letting my father's hard work go to waste."

"You would've realized it eventually Naru-kun. You're too smart not to have. But I'm glad to have helped you."

With that, she released herself from the hug and went to her tent. Naruto did not get any sleep that night, choosing to instead stare into fire for the rest of the night, reflecting on the advice that he had been given.

The next day found the duo again hopping through the trees at high speeds. Naruto broke the friendly quiet first. "Ne, Sorana-chan, how do you think we're going to find these missing-nin? Tea Country is a pretty big place."

"We will go to the country's Daimyo and ask him about any recent attacks. We will investigate each place where an event took place. We will easily be able to tell if the attacks were caused by a Leaf ninja or something else, especially as some of the attacks used by the Nara and Maito clan leave very obvious signs of who caused the damage."

"Yatta! That's a brilliant plan," said Naruto. "Now do you know where the Daimyo's palace is?"

Sorana nearly tripped over the branch that she had been about to land on before she righted herself. She looked to see if Naruto was serious, before realizing that she couldn't tell with Naruto's mask blocking off his face from view.

Going with the feeling in her gut that told her that he was being completely serious, she answered him. "Yes, Naruto, I know where I'm going. It's in the large city in the middle of Tea Country that states clearly: Daimyo's City."

Naruto scratched at the back of his head. "Heh heh, I totally knew that Sorana-chan. I was just testing you."

Sorana waved of the bald lie before jumping forward in silence. The partners reached the Daimyo's city halfway through the afternoon and were told that they would receive a audience at sundown.

Naruto was splayed impatiently across the comfortable couch that the Tea Daimyo had given the partners for the night. A knock finally rang against the door and Naruto hopped off of the couch, waking Sorana sleeping on the other couch, in the process.

A regal butler sat in front of the opened door and he beckoned the two Kawa-nin to follow him. They did so and soon found themselves in front of the enormous gold-plated doors that led to the Daimyo's throne room.

They walked a hundred feet or so before bowing, still 15 feet from the Daimyo's feet.

"Rise, Konoha shinobi," he commanded. The daimyo was actually a rather impressive looking man with a barely noticeable gut and a silver sheen to his black hair that added to his prestige rather than taking from it. He was dressed in the finest of kimonos and had a very commanding voice. "Now, what exactly are you doing in my country, shinobi?"

"Well, Daimyo-sama, we are part of a new Konoha division, Kawa, that racks its missing-nin," said Sorana. "We are currently tracking a group of ex-chuunin who are said to be in your country. We came to you to first, announce our presence, and second, to ask if you could give us any information on attacks in your area whose instigators have still not been found."

"Ah, a very straightforward shinobi. I enjoy talking to shinobi so much more than politicians for exactly that reason," chuckled the Daimyo. "And of course I will give you all the information that you need. After all, I do owe both of your senseis a favor. At least forty years ago, Homura, Koharu, and Hiruzen saved me after I had been kidnapped."

"Those were the good old days," he reminisced. "But enough of that, you may return to your rooms. In the morning, I will send down all the files to your rooms. Tell those old sensei of yours that I said hello."

With that the two Kawa-nin rose off of their knees and headed back to their rooms. That night, Naruto actually fell asleep.

At seven sharp, the fancy butler was again knocking at the ninjas' quarters. He carried food and information, two very important things in a ninja's arsenal.

The duo spent the next several hours sorting through files and reports. Over 90% of the files were junk, to the Kawa-nin at least. There were only 9 attacks that looked to have damage caused by Leaf techniques. 3 of the battle sites had Nara flash bombs while the other 6 had massive tree damage as well as torn up earth that hinted at the destructive power of the Maito taijutsu style, the Goken.

It seemed as if the missing-nin had only moved to Tea Country within the last 6 months, and all of their attacks had been within a 50 mile radius of each other. While that was certainly a lot of ground to cover for civilians, it could be covered in a matter of hours with ninja, especially with the added benefit of Naruto's Mizu Bunshins.

They left the Daimyo's palace less than an hour after finding the pattern.

Naruto and Sorana landed in a clearing where their information had put the last attack. After investigating, they both concluded that the damage was indeed done by the powerful Goken style. There were fists prints indented into multiple trees while others were knocked over by imprinted feet. There was also no sense of chakra residue or scorch marks from a burn which ruled out exploding tags and ninjutsu.

Either Tsunade had done this or it was the Goken style as nothing else had the sheer damage potential without the use of chakra.

"Oh darn, they're here already," drawled a lazy voice, making the two Kawa-nin to jump. "Our spy in the Daimyo's circle said you wouldn't make it here for at least another half hour. I was really hoping to just set up traps so I wouldn't actually have to fight you."

That lazy drawl could only be produced from a Nara throat, which meant that this was missing-nin was Nara Shikayaku.

Sorana immediately place one hand on Naruto's shoulder and holding her other hand in the Kai handseal. Kurama Jien appeared, a throw kunai already halfway towards Sorana.

She ducked and then Naruto had his own problems to deal with. Maito Hanako's fist had buried itself into his stomach and he suddenly found himself flying. He flipped himself upright in midair and landed with his feet planted onto a tree trunk.

He flipped to avoid Hanako's devastating punch that tore through the tree trunk like butter. He pulled his surujin that had been wrapped around his bicep and sent the weighted end towards her head while she recovered from missing.

Suddenly, Sakura blossoms were falling around him and he looked desperately for Hanako. Remembering who the third member of the trio was, Naruto swung the weighted end towards his leg and the pain broke the genjutsu.

Unfortunately, Jien's attack had caused him to miss Hanako's head and he now had a missed off Maito on his hands. Hanako darted in close but he swung his gloved fist at her and shot off three blades of wind from the seals found on the glove. One connected and went straight through her shoulder.

Her left arm hung limply, but she wasn't a taijutsu master for nothing. She used her crippled arm like a meat whip and beat him up and down with it.

She charged at him again and he started a set of handseals. "Doton: Supi-do no Hashira no Jutsu," he yelled. Immediately, a pillar of earth rose out of the ground and launched him into the air.

He pumped chakra into his glove and fire blasted out of it, wrapping around his hand. Hanako was looking at him in shock and she suddenly found his flaming hand stuck in her chest.

She fell to her knees and Naruto pulled his hand out of her chest with a wet squelch.

He looked to see how Sorana was doing before he fell to his knees. His ears were suddenly ringing harshly, and his eyes were flashing, and his mouth felt like cotton. He knew he was under a genjutsu but there was absolutely nothing he could do.

He grabbed at his surujin again and started swinging it around him in a pattern meant to stop anything getting through to him. He could only hope Sorana got to him or Jien screwed up.

_**With Sorana**_

Naras definitely deserved their reputation as geniuses, thought Sorana. She was outmaneuvered and out of position. She let out her Kikai for another attack and they swarmed Shikayaku. He threw another one of those annoying flash bombs that paralyzed her poor little allies for about 30 seconds.

She jumped over a shadow that was charging at her before she felt another genjutsu fall over her. It was broken a second later however. She currently had about a hundred kikai in her skull that had orders to eat any foreign chakra that entered there.

She threw a handful of senbon at Shikayaku before discretely dropping a few makibishi around her. He bent gracefully to avoid the senbon before once again trying to corral her towards the large towering trees that threw even larger shadows.

Once again, a genjutsu was cast on her, but her kikai gratefully chomped down Jien's chakra. She threw a 5 kunai, with matching exploding tags, into the trees surrounding her where she was almost positive Jien was hiding.

The explosion knocked a figure out of the tree but it also lengthened the shadows in the clearing from the large explosion of light. Sorana jumped back immediately before back flipping several times in different directions to avoid the Nara's hungry shadow.

Sorana threw several more senbon but Shikayaku merely dodged before throwing three more flash bombs at her. When the flash died down, she was caught in Shikayaku's shadow...until she dissolved into a mass of bugs.

He heard a sound from above him and looked and the sight caused even his genius brain to grind to a halt. Sorana was hovering 15 feet in the hair, with large wings made of kikai attached to her and flapping.

"Raiton: Ikazuchi no Tsubasa no Jutsu," she cried. Immediately her wings started flapping faster and with each flap of her wings, a huge shockwave of sound, air, and sparks were directed right at her opponent.

Shockwave after shockwave slammed into Shikayaku and he was gasping for air after only 3 seconds. Sorana finished off her opponent with a Raiton-charged senbon through the forehead.

As Sorana touched ground again and her wings dissolved and were reabsorbed into her body, she looked for her partner. Naruto was currently swinging his surujin like mad that formed a shield of chain around him.

Jien, obviously recovered from her exploding tag bombardment, was creeping towards the blonde. Sorana snorted. There was no way he was getting through that defense. She decided to put the annoying genjutsu user out of his misery and sent a swarm of her kikai at him.

Jien was caught immediately and the kikai stung him until he was paralyzed. Then Sorana lopped his head with one easy swing of her sai.

_**Back with Naruto**_

Naruto's vision and hearing cleared immediately. He had probably only been under the genjutsu for 5 or 10 seconds but being that helpless had been absolutely terrifying.

He found Sorana quickly, as she was already rushing to his side to make sure that he was okay. Jien and Shikayaku were done for the count. After wrapping his surujin back around his arm, he cut off Hanako's head and sealed it, along with Jien's and Shikayaku's.

Mission accomplished. It was time to go back to Konoha.

**Jutsu List**

Doton: Supi-do no Hashira no Jutsu[Earth Release: Speed Pillars Technique]  
>Rank: C<br>Description: The user leaps as he performs the needed handseals. Instantly pillars of rock pop out of the ground and rise to his feet. One after the other, a pillar pushes the user's feet to move quickly between the previous one fading and the next one in formation. The pillars cannot reach too high (not higher than an average tree for example).

Raiton: Ikazuchi no Tsubasa no Jutsu [Thunder Wings Technique]

Rank: A

Description: Sorana creates wings out of her insects, which allows her to fly. She can only go about 30 feet off the ground however. With each flap of her wings, a loud thunderclap is heard that can burst eardrums and physically injure the person if she aims the sound waves. She can fly for over an hour however.

**So Naruto will soon be meeting the Kyuubi and training to use its chakra, although there will be a twist to how Naruto accesses it. The first mission-how'd you like it? Was the fighting believable and enjoyable? I created the Ikazuchi no Tsubasa, but I pulled the Supi-do no Hashira off of VynosNeptune's fic Custom Elemental Ninjutsu. Let me know. I want to be an author, so all the feedback I get is much appreciated. Thanks again. **


	6. Betrayal

**So a few of you have brought up some questions/critiques about my story and I really think this chapter is going to answer many of them. Most of this was already going to happen anyway, but I really appreciate the reviews, so keep 'em coming cuz the reviews are what keep my fire going. Also, I apologize for the wait. I was on vacation in Chicago with my parents and the hotel I was in didn't give out free wi-fi and I wasn't about to pay 8.50 an hour for it. So while I did do some writing, I didn't do the battle scenes because I needed access to the jutsus that the opponents I was using would be most likely to use. So sorry again. Hope you like the chapter. **

Naruto dropped the heads containing the three scrolls onto Koharu-ba-chan's desk, Sorana standing by his side. "We got some issues, Ba-chan. The targets knew ahead of time that we were after them. Only the council, our tutors, and certain Anbu members are even supposed to know about the Kawa division and all of them have seals that stop them from talking about anything classified, which the Kawa division is, outside of the Council Room. So we have a serious leak on our hands."

"Yes, I am quite aware of the seal, Naru-chan. Homura was the one who invented the seal. It is more to stop the civilian side of the council from selling secrets for power, but it also works to stop traitor nin from talking."

"But the seal can be circumvented by another seal genius," broke in a new voice. The three conversing ninja tensed immediately, before turning to the darkened right corner that the voice had appeared to come off of.

For once in shinobi life, there was no throwing voices or jutsu used to fool an opponent. Instead, a figure walked out of the corner. His eye was covered in bandages and his arm was in a sling. He was the leader of Ne, and the largest war hawk in Konoha, Danzo.

"And I am nothing if not a seal genius. I cracked Homura's seal three years after it was applied."

"It was quite the nifty little seal, quite inventive, but I have been, and always will be light-years beyond Sarutobi's little lackey."

"Old cripple!" shouted Naruto. "What are you doing here, scaring Koharu-ba-chan like that!"

"Isn't it obvious, you simpleton," resorted Danzo. "If you can't figure it out, I guess the 'revered Elders' didn't train you as well as they seem to think."

"Naru-chan, now is not the time for your antics. Just making the Homura's seal is treason punishable by death, but he is hinting that he is the cause for the information that the traitors had. Why did you do this, Danzo? We trusted you."

"Trusted me! Bah, I'm the least trusted person in this village, even more so than that snake slut Mitarashi or the Kyuubi brat in front of you."

"But I did this for the good of the village. What good is the Kawa division if no one in Konoha know what it is or what it does? There is no point."

"Although, I must add that some of my motives are altruistic," Danzo said, beginning to lift his finger to point at Koharu. "You ruined all of my plans. I, and with me Konoha, would have had an incredible weapon if you had given me the fox."

"I could've made him a Kage-level ninja by the time he was this age, inside he'd be lucky to be considered an A-rank ninja. By exposing Kawa before you were ready, I hoped to cause you a setback like the setback that you handed to me."

"I had also hoped that the chuunin Team Yin-Yang was sent off would be able to kill one of the two brats. It seemed I overestimated their abilities."

"Danzo, what is the point of this? Why are you telling me all of this? You could have gotten away with this."

Danzo laughed. "Of course I could have, and I still will. It will be such a shame when an experimental jutsu created by the Kyuubi Jinchuriki killed himself, his partner, and the Honorable Elder Koharu."

He then fired off one of his famous Vacuum Fuuton jutsu. "Fuuton: Shinku Renpa," Danzo shouted.

Naruto jumped in front of the jutsu, while unfurling one of the scrolls on his belt. "Eremento Sanmai," he yelled. The jutsu was pulled into Naruto's seal, stopping any damage. "Fuin." The seal pulsed red for a second before Naruto wrapped up the seal and pushed it back into his belt.

Koharu used Danzo's distraction to press the hidden switch under her desk which alerted the Sandaime and anyone still in the building that the Kawa division was being attacked.

Only seconds after the alarm sounded, the three figures burst into Koharu's office. They were the second set of partners to be trained as Kawa-nin, Uzuki Momo and Yuuhi Tsao, and their current tutor, Homura-sensei.

Danzo again chuckled. "Called for the cavalry, did you? Too bad for you that I ensured that that chakra pulse you sent with the switch under your desk would never leave this building. After all, this really does need to look like an accident."

"After your unfortunate demise, I will have to suggest that one of my older underlings, or even Yamato, take over the Kawa division. You two are much too weak to lead such an important part of the Leaf."

"I must thank you, however, for seeing the disease that was wracking our Great Tree. But your service is no longer required."

As Danzo finished speaking, two figures appeared out of the same corner that Danzo had come out of. "Since you appeared to want to bring friends along, I did the same," Danzo said. "Meet my greatest masterpieces, Torune and Fuu."

Koharu spoke up then. "Sorana, Naruto you take Torune. He looks like an Aburame, and the both of you know how to combat one. Momo, Tsao, you'll be taking on Fuu. He could be a Yamanaka from his looks, so assume the worst. Homura and I have Danzo. Do not interfere, we need a have a private...chat with our old friend."

With that, the four Kawa-nin bolted out of the door to give room for their tutors for their S-class fight. Naruto and Sorana broke off to head to the jutsu room, while Momo and Tsao headed off to the Dojo. Their opponents followed them out of the room, their orders to kill the blasted Kawa-nin and to not allow anyone to escape.

**Momo and Tsao vs. Fuu**

Momo pulled twin katanas off of her back as soon as she entered the dojo. She could feel her pursuer right on her heels and twisted to evade an evisceration from a kunai. She blocked the next strike and swiped at Fuu's head with her other katana.

He dodged nimbly before jumping back to avoid a hail of shruiken from Tsao. Tsao went in to engage Fuu in taijutsu. He was kicked away in only half a second, but that was enough for Momo. She had had enough time to activate the Dojo with her chakra.

50 dummies popped up out of the floor, used for practicing taijutsu and kenjutsu styles. They would also be a great distraction in this case. If Fuu happened to actually be a Yamanaka, then the dummies would get in the way of his accuracy with the clan jutsu.

Another splash of Momo's chakra into the dojo control boards and the dummies started to move erratically across the floor. Momo and Tsao had long ago memorized the pattern the dummies moved in, but Fuu was in unfamiliar ground. The pattern was over 5 minutes long, and the battle would be long over before the pattern restarted.

Fuu dodged a dummy, only for another dummy to slam into his back. Momo and Tsao were nimbly dodging the dummies, it was yet another advantage of home turf.

Momo, recognizing the next moves in the battle, moved in for another bout of kenjutsu. She moved in, slashing with her right katana, before stabbing with her right. Fuu saw right through her attack, however, and weaved through the blows. His reacting strike was heading right for her jugular, but a dummy rocked into his side, knocking the strike off balance.

Momo was on him instantly, jumping and spinning viciously with her katana. Fuu dodged, badly, and received a shallow slice across his chest in return. He kicked Momo away and looked about to press his advantage before a trio of kunai, with matching fizzling exploding tags, appeared in front of his feet.

Fuu flipped backwards and another kunai appeared in his left calf, going straight through the muscle. Fuu gasped in pain, and landed harshly. His hands flew through some seals before a large burst of flame shot towards Momo.

She jumped behind a dummy, which took the brunt of the attack, although the sides of her arms received some light burns.

She stood, before running through her own set of handseals. "Suiton: Koku no Jutsu." Instantly, a large black cloud exploded out of her body before disappearing into the ceiling. She looked disappointed.

Fuu said, "It appears you have not mastered that jutsu just yet. It is too bad that you will never have the chance."

He ran at her again, throwing kunai as he went. She deflected them with her kunai before hopping over Fuu. A dummy appeared in his path and he crashed into it.

She let a small grin appear on her face. The plan was working perfectly.

Suddenly, she felt a tug on her left pinky, a sign that Tsao's part of the plan was complete. Now all she had to do was get to get Fuu into place.

She charged him, katanas swinging, before leaving a slight opening. Fuu immediately capitalized on the opportunity, and sunk a kunai into her shoulder. Momo bit back a scream, before she was dropkicked.

She angled her body and landed exactly where she had wanted. Fuu was only a couple yards from her and closing in fast. She jumped away, and a dummy again crashed into Fuu, stopping his pursuit.

"Raiton: Yuntsu no Hashira Sokubaku no Jutsu," said Tsao. Four pillars of rock appeared out of small holes that Fuu had only just noticed and ropes of lightning appeared, locking himself in the prison.

Then, black mist leaked out of the ceiling and forms into a black cloud, which immediately began raining oil, straight onto Fuu. He began struggling against his bonds even harder, to no avail. Tsao threw an exploding note into the prison, and BOOM!, their opponent was no more. After checking that the body was good and truly dead, Momo turned onto her partner.

"You couldn't have gone any faster?"

"You know how hard it is to dig through this wood? I'm pretty sure it's ironwood from Enma's forest, and that's supposed to be indestructible. Leave me alone, will you? You're alive, that's all that matters."

"Say that you when you have a stab wound," Momo retorted.

Tsao merely stuck out his tongue in response.

**Homura and Koharu vs. Danzo**

"Do you two really think that you can take me on? I was considered for the Sandaime for a reason," Danzo said.

"Shush, Danzo. We were the students of the Nidaime Hokage, and are still considered to be some of the strongest ninja Konoha has ever produced," said Koharu, her voice strong and steady in the face of a deadly enemy. "We are not just Honorable Elders, as you like to call us. You have seriously misjudged yourself today."

Homura rolled up the sleeve on his left side, revealing a small scroll. Pumping some chakra into it, two scrolls popped out of the smoke. Homura opened both scrolls, before placing one of his back and the other on his front, both still open.

He stretched before smiling. It had been quite a while since he had had this much adrenaline in his system and it felt simply amazing.

Danzo charged forward, brandishing his cane. Koharu jumped up to meet him, being a bit better than Homura at taijutsu. Koharu launched a vicious uppercut at Danzo's face. He slammed her fist away with a brutal whap of his cane, before he twisted and flipped him upside down with a low spin-kick. Danzo flipped over it and brought the cane down again, aiming for Koharu's head.

The cane was caught in Homura's hand before the Elder kicked Danzo away from his partner. The traitor rebounded quickly and launched a kick at Homura that the aged Elder would not be able to stop.

A sharp buzz of Raiton chakra stopped Danzo's foot six inches from Homura's nose. "Meimei Tate Fuin," whispered the Elder, one large seal on the seal on his chest glowing red.

Homura went on the offense, aiming quick blows at Danzo's chest. Whenever the male Elder got close, Danzo received a shock and whenever Homura landed a blow, Danzo went into a small seizure from the Raiton chakra. Danzo's taijutsu was much better than Homura's however and Homura was unable to capitalize.

Koharu had not been idle in the meantime. "Kokuangyo no Jutsu," she said. Instantly, darkness covered her whole office, not a small feat by any means. She knew where Homura was instantly, as they were connected by a seal on the bottom of both of their feet. It had always really been Homura and herself as a team, as Sarutobi had been light-years ahead of them.

She sent a pulse through the seal on her foot that she would be doing a technique, and he would also have to do one to cover up her chakra spike. "Kuchiyose: Kashime," she whispered, her chakra spike and murmur covered up by Homura's yell of "Katon: Karyuu Endan no Jutsu."

Danzo countered with his famous Fuuton: Shinkugyoku. The resulting explosion left a large slice in Homura's chest and a badly burned left hand. He jumped out of the way of Danzo's follow-up swipe and disappeared into the darkness.

Danzo waited, his chakra out and feeling for anything to come close to him. He jumped, a second too late to avoid Koharu's kick, as she appeared out of the ground.

Koharu kept hard on him, bruises forming instantly on Danzo's skin as the darkness and her determination to keep the injured Homura out of the fight combined to increase Koharu's taijutsu. Then a blade appeared out of Danzo's cane, and using Koharu's brief shock, he sunk it into her stomach.

Koharu grabbed at the handle, tearing it out of Danzo's hands, as her eyes went wide from the pain. Danzo went in for the kill, but Homura stopped him.

"Katon: Housenka no Jutsu," he yelled. Twenty fireballs shot out of the Elder's mouth, blocking off all paths to his partner.

Koharu was barely staying awake, knowing that she had to stay conscious to keep her plan alive. Homura performed the Katon: Housenka again, pumping even more chakra into it, creating forty fireballs.

The fireballs, along with five kunai with exploding tags tied to them, herded Danzo towards the hole that Koharu had made earlier.

As Danzo stepped over the hole, a gigantic mandible appeared out of the hole, snapping across Danzo's waist. An enormous centipede followed after, curling protectively around her summoner and Homura while still watching Danzo's remains.

The remains shimmered away. "Izanagi," Homura whispered. Just then, the Sandaime appeared in the remains of the office. There was no sign of Danzo.

The Elders let themselves slip into exhaustion. Let their teammate handle everything and figure out what happened. It was his job after all.

**Naruto and Sorana vs. Torune**

Sorana reached the training ground first, Naruto hot on her heels. She stood in the dojo, back to back. Torune entered the dojo only seconds afterwards, two kunai armed with exploding tags already zooming their way towards him.

Torune ducked under the barrage, before throwing a few of his own. Naruto dived under his while Sorana jumped over his. Sorana pulled out her sai, while Naruto unraveled his surujin. They ran together, weaving in and out of each other's paths.

Naruto attacked first, the weighted end of his surujin shooting forwards to wrap around Torune's neck. At least, that was the intention. Torune ducked, and Sorana aimed her sai towards Torune's chest. He was much more flexible than he appeared and dodged it. He flipped over the two Kawa-nin and use the backs of their exposed necks to vault over the two.

Torune grunted as he landed though, Sorana had managed to slip a sai into his knee as he jumped over her. She had managed to cut at least one tendon, probably two, and it would make running and fighting much more difficult. Fortunately, he would not have to fight much longer.

Naruto suddenly coughed, a large glob of a purple, vacuous liquid shooting out of his throat. Torune said, "It seems that my Nanosaizu no Dokumushi has finally started to kick in. They attack and poison your cells, insuring a painful, quick death. The Nanosaizu no Dokumushi are Danzo's improvement on the Aburame Clan kikaichu, although only an Aburame is able to use them."

Besides, Naruto, Sorana was also coughing, having fallen to her knees as Torune talked. Torune stalked towards the pair, cautious even though he knew they were quickly weakening. He pulled out a kunai.

"Naruto-kun, you must do something. I am currently using 75% of my hive to contain the poison, but it is only a temporary solution. We must finish this and get to the hospital, or we shall die."

As Sorana said that she would die, Naruto's mind began creating images. A name on the memorial stone of his most precious person, etched forever into the granite. Sorana's body, pale and lifeless without the breath of life and the hum of the hive inside of her.

As these images flashed through his mind, Naruto's eyes went red. Red chakra began pouring out of his body, and Naruto growled viciously. Naruto blinked, and suddenly he was somewhere else.

His mind felt calm again, and he wandered around this place that he found himself in. He assumed as it was his mind, as it was the only thing that made sense. The pipes above his head, the leaked blue chakra, had to be his chakra coils, while the water flowing through the pipe that he was walking in was his thoughts.

Naruto eventually came to an enormous pipe that all the other pipes seemed to connect to. He walked down it, having a pretty good idea of where the pipe would take him.

And he was right. The pipe emptied out into a gigantic room, with a gigantic cage in the middle of the room. The Kyuubi, red fur glowing and nine tails swinging agitatedly, was housed in the cage.

**"I see you finally made your way here, ningen. It is quite a shame that that you only came here on your death bed."** The Kyuubi chuckled, its red eyes glinting maliciously.

**"But I shall save you. I will save your pathetic live three times, and then we will do something for me every time I save your life again. If you do not agree, you will die, as will your pathetic little bug-wielding partner."**

Naruto had no real choice but to agree. He could not allow his partner to die if there was anyway at all that he could save her.

"Alright, Kyuubi, you got yourself a deal. Now save me and get me out of here so that I can kill that poison-wielding freak."

The Kyuubi again chuckled, an evil low sound that sent shivers up Naruto's spine.

**"I'm glad that you have agreed ningen. Now go, and enjoy the pure power that is me!"**

Naruto again blinked, and he was back in the real world. He felt the same anger that he had previously, and power seemed to ooze out of every pour.

The red chakra covered him completely, and he shot off like a rocket towards Torune. He could not handle the pure speed that was Naruto. Naruto punched Torune towards a wall, before catching Torune with a kick that sent him spiraling down before the Ne operator could reach the wall.

Torune sat there, unmoving, and Naruto used the Kyuubi's chakra to move long claws over his fingers. He landed next to Torune, and sliced off his head.

The Kyuubi's power left Naruto, almost sending him to his knees. Naruto's coughs came back, although it was significantly easier on his lungs. Naruto looked back to Sorana, who was starting to go into convulsion.

He ran to her, and picked her up, already feeling out of breath. It seemed that the Kyuubi had only healed him enough to keep him alive, not to put him back in tip-top shape.

Naruto sprinted back to the office, where the sounds of fighting had ended. He burst through the door, gaining the Sandaime's attention.

He yelled, "Help!" before buckling. He fainted, knowing that his Jiji would save his partner.

**Jutsu List**

Fuuton: Shinku Renpa [Wind Release: Vacuum Serial Waves]

Rank: S

The user takes a deep breath and exhales several blades of wind at different angles, by rapidly moving their head in various directions. Its power can be dramatically increased when utilized in conjunction with extreme suction, such as that generated by the Baku. This jutsu is efficient enough to even cut through Susanoo's defense.

Eremento Sanmai Fuin [Elements Absorption Seal]

Rank: A

Description: A seal that can absorb any kind of elemental ninjutsu.

Suiton: Koku no Jutsu [Water Release: Black Rain Technique]  
>Rank: C<br>Requirements: None.  
>Description: The user creates a black mist that will emit from their body and rise up toward the sky. A temporary flammable rain of oil is released upon the user's specific targeted area. Used by Kawa-nin to burn away evidence of their coming without leaving a behind a Katon chakra residue.<p>

Raiton: Yuntsu no Hashira Sokubaku no Jutsu [Lightning Release: Four Pillar Binding Technique]  
>Rank: A<br>Requirements: None  
>Description: Four pillars of rock are formed and instantly emit strong sparks of electricity that trap the target within<p>

Meimei Tate Fuin [Invisible Shield Seal]

Rank: A

Description: Using two seals, one on his back and the other on his front, Homura creates a force field around his body that deflects blows and delivers shocks to anyone who hits it.

Kokuangyo no Jutsu [Bringer of Darkness Technique]  
>Rank: B<br>Description: Creates an illusion of complete darkness over the battlefield. Causes confusion.

Katon: Karyuu Endan no Jutsu [Fire Release: Fire Dragon Flame Blast Technique]  
><span>Rank: B  
>Description: A jutsu that sends a stream of fire towards the opponent, in the shape of a large dragon, from the users mouth.<p>

Fuuton: Shinkugyoku [Wind Release: Vacuum Sphere]

Rank: B

The user takes a deep breath and then exhales several small blasts of wind chakra in such a manner that they are dispersed over an expansive range, enough to make it difficult to avoid them entirely without taking any damage. Due to the properties of this technique, the expelled blasts are capable of piercing into and potentially through an opponent's flesh when they collide, in a similar manner to how bullets function.

Katon: Housenka no Jutsu [Fire Release: Mythical Fire Flower Technique]  
><span>Rank: C  
>Description: A jutsu that sends multiple blasts of fire from the mouth, usually with one target in mind. Shurikens can also be hidden inside the flames, creating an element of surprise<p>

Izanagi

Rank: S

Izanagi is a genjutsu that is cast on the user instead of others and is the most powerful amongst this type of genjutsu. When activated, the caster removes the boundaries between reality and illusion within their personal space. To a degree this allows the user to control their own state of existence. It is normally only active for the briefest of moments.

Nanosaizu no Dokumushi [Nano-Sized, Venomous Insects]

Rank: A

Nanosaizu no Dokumushi are a special breed of insects used by select members of the Aburame Clan as part of their Parasitic Destruction Insect Technique. These bugs destroy their enemies' cells, causing excruciating pain in the process. Unlike the standard kikaichu, which are able to act independently of the user, the nano-sized insects can only be transferred on to a victim's body by direct physical contact; though only a mere touch from the user's skin is required as the bugs can circumvent most forms of clothing. However, this apparently does not apply to the user's own clothes, who must instead remove items in order to effectively increase their chances of hitting the target. The two known users of these bugs: Torune and Shikuro Aburame, are also the only known Aburame to possess the antibodies for the insects. These insects are considered to be rare, even amongst the Aburame clan.

**So ends yet another chapter. I hope you guys like this, and I really think that this chapter created an answer to some of your concerns. Okay, so let's get to the part where I answer some of the concerns that I know are going to pop up. Yes, I realize how powerful Fuu is, but I really think that it is logical that Tsao and Momo would be able to kill him. They had home turf advantage, and much better planning. **

**As to why Danzo did what he did-he's always believed in doing what's best for the Leaf and he has no qualms in killing people in the first place. He believed Koharu and Homura were too soft and similar to Sarutobi to do what was needed and he ordered them killed. He also allowed Koharu to activate the switch to call in reinforcements in the headquarters because he would've had to kill them anyway, so why not get them in the room. This will not be the last time you will see Danzo in this fic. Hopefully, you guys like Homura's and Koharu's fighting abilities.**

**As to the Torune fight, this was the only way I could actually see it happening. All Torune needs is a touch to kill someone, and he was way too skilled in taijutsu to be stopped from touching Naruto and Sorana. Hopefully you like the Kyuubi-Naruto meeting. To me, Kyuubi is a fox, and is therefore going to be manipulative as hell. You do not get into someone's good graces by insulting someone. Therefore, Kyuubi helped out Naruto. The manipulative side of the Kyuubi will come soon.**

**So I'm house-sitting for someone, so I'll have a lot of time to write so expect the next chapter up sometime tomorrow night. Thank you for reading. **


	7. Growing Up

**So not many reviews on the last chapter. It was really disappointing to be honest, because I basically live for reviews. I really appreciate everyone who reviewed my story. Please review, because its the only way that I can make my ideas even better.**

**The hospital**

The Kawa-nin, like Anbu agents and Root operators, had their own special wing in the hospital wing. This was to keep the members' identities secret, as well as to protect the strong injured ninja of the Leaf.

Naruto and Sorana had shared a room, while Koharu and Momo also shared a room. Tsao and Homura, who had had little to no injuries, had been checked over and released immediately.

Naruto, who had been going stir crazy, had turned to his seals. He had been tinkering with two of his scrolls all day, and Sorana was beginning to get curious. Even Aburame have their limits, and Sorana really needed a way to pass the time.

"Naruto-kun, what are you doing with all those seals?"

It took Sorana two more times to get his attention. Naruto blinked slowly, before his eyes focused on his partner.

"Ne, Sorana-chan, have I ever explained the seals on my gloves before?"

Sorana shook her head, wondering where this was all going.

"Well, to put it simply, I recreated the copying effects of a Sharingan with seals. Now before you get to impressed, it takes a shit load of work to copy even one jutsu and I have to use the jutsu a certain way."

"Now, how all started was seeing Homura-sensei use the Fuka Hoin to absorb a Katon jutsu. Seeing that, I asked him if they was a seal for every element, you know a seal that absorbs Suiton, and Fuuton, and so on and so on."

"Of course, after that, I started wondering if I could just create a seal that absorbed any elemental ninjutsu. And so I came up with the Eremento Sanmai Fuin."

"And that was hard. That was like 18 solid months of work, from when I was nine and a half until I was eleven. Homura-sensei said to never rely on your laurels, so I started thinking about what to do with the absorbed jutsu."

"Just releasing it seemed really lame, and I don't do lame things, so I had to come up with something else. And then I saw Kakashi-sensei use a jutsu he had just seen Homura-sensei use in one of their monthly matches to the old man in fighting shape. And it hit me. Why not use the absorbed jutsu to copy a jutsu to use against your opponent?"

"So I created a linked seal to the Eremento Sanmai Fuin. I like to call it the KaishuuKakubu Fuin. It breaks down the jutsu into a set of seals over 4 hours. Unfortunately, I have to constantly pump chakra into it. It amounts to over three Raiton: Yuntsu no Hashira Sokubaku no Jutsu in the end. Either way, by the end, my seal pumps out a set of seals that can recreate the jutsu that I absorbed."

"Of course, I can't just throw the seals around and have jutsu pop out of them. That's actually why I came up with my glove. I attach the seals around the wrist of the glove, and channel chakra into it. The top part of my wrist recreates a wind jutsu, which will now be the wind jutsu that Danzo used against me. The bottom part of my wrist recreates Katon: Endan that Homura-sensei showed me."

"The seals work really well. The more powerful the jutsu on the glove, the stronger the wind or the fire that shoots out. I'm currently working on a glove that will recreate Suiton, Raiton, and Doton jutsu but it will probably be a while. The current glove took me quite a while to finish."

Naruto rolled up the seals, and Sorana saw the seals on the top part of the seals shift and change, representing the change from the original jutsu to Danzo's vacuum jutsu.

"That's quite impressive, Naruto-kun. I had no idea the amount of work that you had put into that glove. I had assumed it was just a seal that changed your chakra into a certain element and shot it out of your glove."

"Well, I couldn't do that, mostly because it's been done before and I don't do stuff that's been done before. But this way is actually much more powerful. The seal that you're talking about takes my chakra and turns it into an element that it is not compatible with, making it weaker. Another plus side of my seal is that it as I pump my chakra into each seal, it refines the elemental chakra, making it much more powerful for a lot less chakra."

"The seal you're talking about, which Jiraiya created and calls the Shiki Idou Fuin, takes about ten times more chakra than my seal, with about a fifth of the effects. It was this set of seals that got me my fuinjutsu journeyman status. Aren't I awesome!"

And with that, the serious, calm, shinobi Naruto switched to the goofball idiot Naruto. "Yes, Naruto-kun, you are quite inspiring."

"Yea, I know," he said, sticking his tongue out.

A knock at their door distracted the two from their childish behavior. "May I come in?" Hokage-jiji asked, peeking his head through the door.

Naruto simply nodded.

"Ahh, thank you. It is quite good to see that the both of you are healthy, and if your doctor is to be trusted, and will be released in a week. The Ne operation, Torune, did quite a job on your bodies with his poison."

"The medics say that any longer and you may have suffered permanent damage to your chakra coils. I was quite worried about the both of you," the Sandaime said, a slight frown marring his face.

"But enough of that, as you are both healthy, and judging by your earlier actions, cheerful as well. Sorana blushed at the fact that the Hokage had heard her tease Naruto.

"I have actually come from Hokage duties for once. I have come to tell you what has become of Danzo, the two operators known as Fuu and Torune, and Ne."

"Danzo escaped, barely injured, and has been declared an S-rank missing-nin of Konoha. He will be your target once your skills grow even more. Homura received a thick cut to his chest and his hand had 3rd degree burns on it. Koharu had a stab wound that nicked a rib and collapsed her right lung. Both will be released tomorrow, and will remain in charge of Kawa. The issue with the alarm has also been fixed."

"Tsao and Momo killed their opponent, with Momo only spending a night in the hospital for heal her injuries. They both will be paid an A-rank mission and Fuu's body has been returned to the Yamanaka Clan for disposal."

"Now, onto your fight. The both of you will be paid an A-rank mission for killing Torune. Here are your checks. This includes the previously mentioned A-rank mission, as well as the B-rank pay from your mission into Tea Country and a quarter each of the bounties that the team had on their heads."

"Torune's body has been returned to the Aburame Clan. They also asked me to give you a little gift, Sorana." At this, Hokage-jiji pulled out a small vial filled with a purple liquid that had now been identified as the Nanosaizu no Dokumushi.

"Your hive is a sting hive, as you know. Their bodies can hold poison, and it is your Clan's wish to see if the sting beetles can hold Nanosaizu no Dokumushi inside their bodies instead of the usual paralytic poison. This way, you will not even require skin contact to infect your opponent's body, instead only a single kikai has to land there and sting your opponent and they will be seriously injured, if not fatally injured."

"Also, Ne will not be disbanded. they are much to valuable. Danzo's seal has been cracked and broken on each Ne operator by my former student, Jiraiya, and has had a new seal placed on them. The new leader of Ne is a powerful shinobi named Yamato."

"Now that I have explained all of that, it is time to move onto my second objective for being here: your training. Naruto, you told me during my last visit that you had meet the Kyuubi. I spent the last few days recruiting your tutor. I've already mentioned him today, he is my former student, named Jiraiya, and he will teach you how to access your bijuu's chakra. However, as you are a Kawa-nin and will be going on missions into countries where you cannot be detected and going up against S-rank ninja, we have a bit of a dilemma."

"The Kyuubi's chakra is very powerful, and the feeling of its power resides in an area for months after its use. If we taught you like you were any normal jinchuriki, the Kyuubi's chakra would be a dead give-away that Konoha had been somewhere it shouldn't, and this is something that we cannot allow. So your first task will be to come up with a way to access the Kyuubi's power without leaving such a noticeable residue behind. You will have Jiraiya's help. He can also give much help with your fuinjutsu creation and your taijutsu. You will also be working on mastering your surujin and more Suiton and Doton jutsu. But above all, he is just supposed to kick your ass and make every one of your abilities stronger."

"Sorana, you will be training under Koharu as Naruto will be training under Jiraiya. She will be helping you accustom your kikaichu to the Nanosaizu no Dokumushi inside of them. She will be working on your speed, Raiton techniques, and genjutsu-specifically-although she will be helping you improve in everything and will be allowing you to sign the Caterpillar Summoning Contract. You will be only the third person to sign the contract, Koharu included, so feel privileged."

"With the addition of Danzo to our missing-nin ranks, the two of you must become fully realize your potential. You may need to call upon it before you think. Your training resumes 3 days after you are released. I will visit you tomorrow...grandchildren."

With that, the Sandaime stood and walked out of the room. Sorana looked at the vial in her hand quizzically, before smothering the small insects with her chakra. It seemed to Naruto that she was feeding them, feeding them so much they would become dependent on her chakra and her chakra alone.

After about 10 minutes of this, Sorana smiled. She popped the lid of the vial, before allowing a steam of her kikaichu into the vial. The kikai seemed to dip into the vial, grab some of the Nanosaizu no Dokumushi and then turn around. After the vial was empty, Sorana turned to Naruto.

"It seems as though I will not need Koharu-sama to help me with accustoming my kikai to the poison. My kikai mature and develop rapidly, and they have already grown immune to the poison that the Dokumushi use. However, the Nanosaizu no Dokumushi will need to breed, and quickly, as that vial only filled the poison sacs of 30% of my kikaichu."

******1 month Later*****

Naruto rubbed at his forehead tiredly. He had been looking through different seals for an hour everyday for three weeks. It was how most fuinjutsu masters created new seals, looked at the problems of an already existing seal and changing its purpose or improving him.

Jiraiya had suggested that he look at Purification seals and Orochimaru's Curse seal. But unfortunately neither was going to look. Purification seals were used by medic nins who had the knowledge and experience but not the chakra control to do high level medical ninjutsu. The purification seal took regular chakra and purified it into medical chakra.

Unfortunately, it wouldn't work. The powerful youki would overpower the delicate seal long before Naruto pulled out even one tail of the Kyuubi's chakra. Naruto would have to pair it with a much more robust seal to even consider using the purification seals.

Orochimaru's Curse seal was also a good idea. It used vile chakra to transform a shinobi to a powerful human-beast hybrid that was extremely powerful, and there was no residual of chakra left behind.

Unfortunately, there were parts missing on Jiraiya's blue prints of the Curse seal, plus there was major medical issues with transforming.

Of course, it hadn't taken Naruto long to figure out that his best option was to combine the two seals. A transformation with the Kyuubi's chakra would greatly increase Naruto's physical attributes and erase the problem of residual chakra. The addition of the purification seal would also heal Naruto from the injuries that would arise from the transformation and from actual battle.

Of course, as is true in almost every part of shinobi life, this plan was easier thought up than done.

He had written up over 400 prototypes of the seal, and all of them were complete duds. He always seemed to have a great idea of where this kanji should go where, but it actually didn't work out. Jiraiya said not to worry though. It had been his father's method to go through hundreds of designs before he hit upon one.

And he could feel it again, as the kanji for the parts of the seal he had halfway developed seemed to float off the page and connect in yet another way that he hadn't seen or thought of before.

Immediately, Naruto started putting the parts of the seal together. He looked at it, flipped it around, and then grinned. He had actually done it. Granted it wasn't very complicated, just combining two different seals, but he always loved the feeling of creating a new seal.

He called for Jiraiya, who was still sleeping off his hangover from the night before. It was only 8 a.m. after all.

"Wadyawant, gaki," he mumbled, stumbling over to Naruto's desk. Jiraiya had been staying at Naruto's apartment for the last three months. Naruto simply handed his sensei the sheet that held his sketched-out seal.

Jiraiya immediately perked up. The gaki had only shown him two prototypes so far, both of them with only very minor problems. This one, however, was perfect.

"Congratulations, gaki, you did it. Of course, I had this exact same seal after two days of work. But you'll get to my level, eventually. After all, I am the Gallant Jiraiya!"

He laughed. "Now let's get to the Fuinjutsu Room. I want to get that seal on you as soon as possible so I can actually train you in what I was supposed to train you in. Sure, you got another Suiton jutsu under your belt, and your taijutsu and surujin use has shot up in terms of potency, but this seal is going to make you a force to be reckoned with."

Naruto sat in the Sealing room, stripped to the waist, with Jiraiya painting ink on his chest. He had been sitting there for over an hour, and Jiraiya was only finishing now.

"Zurui Tejina," Jiraiya yelled. He painted the final central seal, all in his blood, before pumping chakra into the seal. "Fuin."

The entire seal flashed red, before Naruto shot backwards with a grunt, hitting the wall headfirst and knocking himself out.

Head spinning, Naruto woke up and looked around. Instead of the dark and dingy Seal room, he was in a bright green training ground.

Jiraiya's loud voice made Naruto groan in pain. "Wake up, gaki. I want to see how this seal turns out. Now remember, not only will this seal limit you to one tails of power, but so does your father's seal. You can only draw out one tail's worth of power without the Kyuubi's permission. After that, you're out of luck. It was the reason that you were called to your mindscape after you were poisoned by Torune. The Sandaime said it took about two and a half tails to heal you."

"Sorana used her kikai to slow and limit the effects of Torune's poison. Her medics still went through an estimated tail of Kyuubi's chakra. But do no worry, a tail of the Kyuubi's chakra will easily bump you from a B-rank ninja to an A-rank ninja. We will be practicing with your ability to transform so that you will be able to do it within in ten seconds."

Naruto looked down to see his still unclothed chest, and smiled lightly as he saw the newest collection to the seals starting to cover his body. The seal was small, looking like the tattoo of a kitsune's paw, about three inches above his right nipple.

"Stop gazing at your creation and start pulling on the youki. Remember, you have to funnel the chakra through the seal, and it'll do the rest. Just do like we practiced, and the youki will come right out."

Naruto breathed deeply, reaching into his father's seal, and pulling. The Kyuubi's chakra followed in bundles, following the pull. He kept pulling and led the chakra into the Zurui Tejina Fuin. He let go of the pull, and the youki kept on following, until his stomach clenched and the flow abruptly stopped.

The Zurui Tejina glowed green and red, before Naruto arched his back. The Kyuubi's chakra flowed through his body, changing him. His hair turned orange and shaggy and his ears grew. The points elongated and grew, orange fur also appearing, the growth ending after over a foot of growth. Naruto's eyes went red and the pupils turned into slits. His canines grew, his lips rolling aside to give way to the lengthened fangs. The nails on his hands grew into three inch claws. His skin turned black and leathery.

Then the purified medical youki was channeled through his body. All of the strain the transformation had put onto Naruto's body was instantly healed. After all the damage had been fixed, one thick tan tail of chakra sprouted out of his backside.

Naruto looked down at his body and roared. Then, his common sense took back over and he really looked at himself. "I am the coolest ninja ever!," he yelled. "This is awesome!"

He disappeared, appearing at the other end of the training ground with his arm punched straight through a tree.

Jiraiya called out to him, Naruto's large ears swiveling at the sound. "Alright, gaki, time to really test this thing out."

Jiraiya ran to where Naruto was, planting his fist into his student's stomach. Naruto quickly recovered and aimed a kick at his mentor's face. They traded blows for several hours, before Naruto's transformation ended.

**With Sorana**

Sorana stood in front of the Hive Queen, a slight sheen of sweat on her brow the only sign of her nervousness.

**"Greetings, young beetle. I believe you know the reason that you are here."**

Sorana nodded, way too nervous to speak.

**"Good. You will be fighting for your life. You are the first Aburame in a decade to have the necessary prerequisites to under go this task. You will fight your clan's greatest weapon, the Kamikirimushi Koura, and you will have to subdue it."**

**"I will be watching your entire fight, and I hope that I am impressed. You have the necessary chakra capacity, as well as shinobi potential that is required to wield the armor. You also have the unique ability out of all of your clan to control the Kamikirimushi Koura. Now show me, and the rest of your clan your worth."**

As the Hive Queen finished, a pillar of earth rose out of a pit, carrying a scary sight for Sorana. The Kamikirimushi Koura was fierce, all black spiky plates and powerful lines. There was no wings on the armor, but there was a helmet. It carried the immense horn of the longhorn beetle, and from underneath the helmet gleamed cool silver eyes.

The armor launched off the pillar, powering towards Sorana. She jumped backwards, chucking a handful of exploding kunai at the sentient armor. The explosions hit the armor squarely, but they seemed to slide right off.

The armor seemed to actually get faster after the explosion, and it zoomed straight toward her. She pulled out her two sai, hoping to keep the armor at a distance. The armor ducked under the first slice but Sorana stabbed her left sai into a chink in the armor's right shoulder.

The armor twisted away quickly, tearing the sai out of Sorana's grasp. The armor flipped, and then came back with a powerful kick. Sorana twisted out of the way, but the kick still landed.

Sorana winced at the hit, feeling her ribs creaking. She flipped backwards, her mind racing as she looked for a solution to the battle in front of her.

The only thing that made sense was ninjutsu, as she was totally outclassed in taijutsu and kenjutsu with her sai. There was also no telling if genjutsu would even work, with the armor having such a different mind from the average shinobi.

The armor suddenly raised its arms, aiming them at Sorana. The fingers of the gloves broke off, turning into 20 large flying longhorn beetles. They flew swiftly, their massive horns glowing ominously with chakra.

Sorana flew through some handseals, shouting "Hari Jizou no Jutsu." Her hair grew rapidly, coiling around her. The beetles clutched onto her hair, trying to burrow through the rock-hard hair. Going through more handseals inside her protective cocoon, she said, "Ranji Shigumi no Jutsu." Her hair exploded outwards into spikes, going right through all of the beetles.

Sorana let her hair fall back into place. The armor had already grown back its fingers. It was already charging back at her, and Sorana needed some space.

"Raiton: Jibashi," she yelled. Electricity shot out of her fingers and hit the armor right in the chest. The armor opened up right where the Raiton jutsu struck, and Sorana grinned.

That was what the Hive Queen meant when she said that she had the unique ability among the Aburame to control the Kamikirimushi Koura. She had a Raiton chakra affinity!

She charged back at the armor, flipping through handseals as she went. She loaded the jutsu with a ton of chakra and screamed, again, "Raiton: Jibashi." The electricity split the armor open from crotch to helmet, and it started convulsing.

She did the only thing that felt right, and leaped into the opening. The armor reformed around her body and she instantly felt pure power running through her.

She turned around at the sound of clapping. It was her family and Koharu-sensei.

Koharu could not have been prouder. Her experiment with the Kawa division had paid off and she had two thirteen-year-olds who could both be classified as A-rank nins, if Jiraiya's reports could be trusted.

Soon, soon, Danzo and Orochimaru, and all of the other traitors of Konoha would pay for their deeds. They would rue the day that they had abandoned her village, her home, and she would be known as the trainer of the two shinobi that did the deed.

**Jutsu List**

Fuka Hoin [Fire Sealing Method]

Rank: B

This technique allows the user to seal fire into a scroll. The user writes the seal on a scroll and then performs the required hand seals. This causes a vapor to appear from the scroll, enveloping the fire and sealing it on the scroll as the kanji for seal. Jiraiya used this technique to seal away the black fire from Itachi Uchiha's Amaterasu technique.

Eremento Sanmai Fuin [Elements Absorption Seal]

Rank: A

Description: A seal that can absorb any kind of elemental ninjutsu.

Kaishuu Kakubu Fuin [Collection Parts Seal]

Rank: S

Description: Takes a jutsu that has been absorbed by the Eremento Sanmai Fuin, and converts it into a set of seal that is able to recreate the absorbed jutsu repeatedly.

Shiki Idou Fuin [Seasons Change Seal}

Rank: B

Description: Changes regular chakra into elemental chakra.

Nanosaizu no Dokumushi [Nano-Sized, Venomous Insects]

Rank: A

Nanosaizu no Dokumushi are a special breed of insects used by select members of the Aburame Clan as part of their Parasitic Destruction Insect Technique. These bugs destroy their enemies' cells, causing excruciating pain in the process. Unlike the standard kikaichu, which are able to act independently of the user, the nano-sized insects can only be transferred on to a victim's body by direct physical contact; though only a mere touch from the user's skin is required as the bugs can circumvent most forms of clothing. However, this apparently does not apply to the user's own clothes, who must instead remove items in order to effectively increase their chances of hitting the target. The two known users of these bugs: Torune and Shikuro Aburame, are also the only known Aburame to possess the antibodies for the insects. These insects are considered to be rare, even amongst the Aburame clan.

Zurui Tejina Fuin [Sly Trick Seal]

Rank: B

Description: The seal is a combination between a medic's purification seal and Orochimaru's Curse Seal. The seal allows Naruto to use the Kyuubi's chakra without leaving behind any residue. It transforms Naruto into a human-fox hybrid that increases his speed and strength and chakra pool.

Kuchiyose: Kamikirimushi Koura [Summoning: Longhorn Beetle Carapace]

Rank: S

Description: A living armor that Sorana summons. It covers her in a sleek, black exoskeleton that turns away most blades and jutsu. It also forms a helmet that has a long horn on it. She can channel Raiton chakra into the horn and send it shooting to the enemy as a Raiton ball. It increases speed, strength, and her chakra pool.

Hari Jizou no Jutsu [Underworld Guardian Spikes Technique]

Rank: B

Description: After forming the handseals, the user's hair will grow in length to surround and protect the body. The hair becomes rigid and spiked, forming a layer of protection.

Ranji Shigumi no Jutsu [Wild Lion's Mane Technique]

Rank: B

Description: It lengthens the user's hair and sends it outwards to subdue the foe. It can also turn into spikes.

Raiton: Jibashi no Jutsu [Lightning Release: Electromagnetic Murder Technique]  
>Rank: C<br>Description: This jutsu allows the user to create a wave of electricity from the user's hands. This jutsu can vary in power from a small surge to shock an opponent to a powerful stream of lightning capable of ripping through solid rock. It is ideal to use in conjunction with a water jutsu.

**So here's the next chapter. Hopefully you like it, and I can't stress enough: Review, review, review. I definitely take people's inputs into account. So Naruto and Sorana are now A-rank nin. Next chapter will not be another mission to take out missing-nin, instead it will be the start of the Chuunin Exams and meeting the Rookie 12. It should be pretty amusing, and it should be a very unique take on the first two tests on the Exams. That's all I have to say for now, so hope you enjoyed the read.**


	8. Sabotage

**Thank you so much for all of your reviews. It was totally awesome and I really appreciate it. In your reviews, can you please let me know how you like my writing style? I've said this before but I want to be an author so I need all the critique that I can get. Please help!**

*********One month later********

**The Academy**

Naruto and Sorana stood outside of the Academy. To most ninja, the Academy was the place where their shinobi careers had started, but to Naruto and Sorana it was just another site for yet another assignment.

The Chuunin exams were taking place in Konoha this year, and the Academy was the location of the first test. Naruto and Sorana, as well as a Kage Bunshin henged into a boy with brown hair, were to be plants in the exam. They were to stop any attempts at cheating in the first exam, and destroy scrolls in the second exam.

Hokage-jiji had said that in missions, there was usually a hidden force that no one knew about and could ruin a mission. That was what Naruto and Sorana were for this mission: the deadly unknown.

The team headed up the stairs, easily bypassing the absurdly weak genjutsu on the second floor. They headed into the classroom where the first test was being held.

There was a loud commotion right next to the door, and Naruto glanced at it. It was 12 Leaf genin, about his age if he had to guess.

Naruto was about to pass right by them, when he felt Sorana stiffen. He looked over at her, and saw a hand grabbing at her jacket.

"What are you doing here, Sister?" asked the voice attached to the hand assaulting his partner. "This is for shinobi only, not a bug breeder."

Sorana's brother, while bearing the classical emotionless tone in his voice, had a slight edge of derision that would only be caught by someone who had spent a lot of time with the clan.

"You know I am not a kikai breeder Brother," Sorana retorted, yanking her arm out of her brother's grasp.

"Well you should be," he said. "Someone has to watch the maturation of our clan's kikai, and it should be the females. They have less chakra capacity and are weaker."

"If I am so weak, Shino, why I am able to beat you in everyone of our spars?" Sorana asked.

By now, the battle of words between the two twins had been noticed by the other 11 Konoha genin.

"Who're you talking to, Shino," said a loud Inuzuka, judging by the small puppy sleeping on the boy's head.

"This is my twin sister, Sorana, and, I assume, her teammates," introduced Shino.

Naruto took over from there. "I'm Uzumaki Naruto, and the dude standing next to me is Hatake Ryuuyi."

The Inuzuka than finished off the introductions. "Well, I'm teammates with Shino, and my name is Inuzuka Kiba. Our other teammate is Hyuuga Hinata, she's the girl with the long blue hair. We're Team 8."

"Team 10 is over there," Kiba said, pointing to another group of three. "The blonde chick is Yamanaka Ino, while the guy with the chips is Akamichi Chouji, and the lazy looking one is Nara Shikamaru."

The three all nodded to the undercover Kawa-nin. "And lastly is Team 7. The chick with the bright pink hair is Haruno Sakura. The other two teammates are kind of hard to tell apart, but the guy with the duck-butt hairstyle is Uchiha Sasuke, while the really pale one is Shimura Sai."

"And don't forget us!" shouted a loud voice. He was dressed in green spandex and was followed by another Hyuuga and a kunoichi with her hair up in buns. "I am Rock Lee. The male to my right is Hyuuga Neji, the strongest genin in Konoha, and the youthful kunoichi to my left is Higurashi Tenten. We make up Team 9. It is nice to meet you fellow Leafs!"

Sasuke walked forward. "You three look to be around our age. How come I never saw you in the Academy?"

Naruto laughed. Koharu-ba-chan had spent many nights complaining of the Uchiha's arrogance and Naruto looked forward to taking him down a notch. "We were actually entered in an experimental program."

Sasuke proceeded to look outraged. "Why wasn't I, an Uchiha, the elite of the village, chosen for this advanced training program."

Naruto merely smirked. It was very funny that all Naruto said was experimental program, and Sasuke immediately jumped to the conclusion that it was an advanced training program. He had quite an imagination, and sometimes imagination ruined shinobi.

"Who said anything about training?" Sorana interjected. "And believe it if you will, your father actually denied your placement in the program."

Sasuke's mouth gaped open in shock. "But..but the Uchiha are the elite. Why would he deny the elite better training?"

Naruto laughed. "You'll have to take it up with him I guess." He was feeling a little vindictive. His partner was hurting from Shino's comments, and he was lashing out at the best available person.

Hinata, the diminutive little Hyuuga, spoke up to stop the conflict erupting between Sasuke and Naruto. "A-ano, Sh-Shino?" she asked. "W-why have yo-you nev-evr talked ab-about your sis-ter?"

Unfortunately for Hinata, she chose exactly the wrong question to ask. Shino's already impassive face seemed to sheen over with frost as he began his answer. "I do not talk about my sister because she does not deserve to be talked about. She neglected her given task of being a kikai breeder to become a ninja. Insects who do not complete their tasks in the hive are useless."

Sorana's eyes misted over with tears, hidden by her Aburame glasses. It had always hurt that her brother seemed to hate her very existence and considered her totally useless. The rest of her clan had not helped her situation. Many of the males took Shino's side, while the female's treated her like she was some kind of a symbol for their freedom instead of a clan member. After all, there were now 20 female Aburame in the ninja corps, and the change could somewhat be attributed to her, and it stopped people from simply seeing Sorana. Only her parents, tutors, and Naruto treated Sorana like a human tears.

Naruto saw Sorana's rigid body language and the almost-minute quivering of her bottom lip and got pissed; real pissed.

"Hey, asshole! She's your sister, your twin sister. She's family, and you can't just throw that away because you don't agree with her decisions!"

Naruto prepared to launch at Shino, intent on destroying the bastard who had insulted his partner time and time again.

A voice cut him off though. "You must be the rookies. You're making quite a commotion over here and attracting some unwanted attention for yourselves."

As one, the Konoha genin turned to look at the one speaking. He had long gray hair held together in a ponytail and large circular glasses. He waved. "Hello. My name is Yakushi Kabuto. Just a little friendly warning from an elder: quiet is the way to go. You're still small fish, and you're starting to attract the attention of some predators that'll eat you alive."

Kiba started yelling. "Who the hell are you to give us advice! You don't even look that strong!"

Naruto nearly snorted at that. Kabuto was obviously very strong. His poise, his movements, the amount of muscle in his arms, and the way he watched everyone around him bespoke of a high-level ninja.

Naruto assumed Kabuto was another plant into the exam, although he didn't really know what Kabuto's purpose was.

Kabuto scratched at the back of his neck. "Well, I simply know from experience. This is actually my seventh Chuunin exams."

Sakura spoke up, before Kiba or Sasuke could insult the good-natured Kabuto. "You really must have a lot of information then, Kabuto-san."

"Yes, I do. Here, as a last little bit of goodwill between comrades. I'll give you some information on any competitors here."

Sasuke immediately pushed forward through the throng of other genin. "I want information on Rock Lee, Aburame Sorana, and Uzumaki Naruto from Konoha, and Gaara from Suna."

Kabuto pouted. "You know their names and villages already? That takes all the fun out of it." Kabuto pulled out a large stack of note cards from his ninja pouch. He started shuffling through them, looking for the cards that he needed.

"But let's get started. Alright first off is Rock Lee from Konoha. Teammates are Hyuuga Neji, Rookie of the Year of his class, and Higurashi Tenten, Kunoichi of the year. Rock Lee was the dead last in the class. Their jounin-sensei is Maito Gai, A-ranked nin codenamed Green Beast of Konoha. Rock Lee has had 46 D-rank missions and 6 C-rank missions. He has no skills in either genjutsu or ninjutsu but has a high proficiency in taijutsu."

"Next up is Aburame Sorana. Her teammates are Uzumaki Naruto and Hatake Ryuuyi. They graduated from an experimental training program designed to see if the Academy needed to be shaken up a little bit. Their jounin-sensei is Hyuuga Kaori, a renowned medic and taijutsu specialist. Sorana has completed 57 D-rank missions and 7 C-ranks. She is showing some promise in genjutsu and taijutsu but mainly uses taijutsu and Aburame clan jutsu."

"Onto her teammate, Uzumaki Naruto. Obviously, he has the same teammates and jounin-sensei as Aburame Sorana, and has completed the same amount of missions. Naruto is starting to learn fuinjutsu, but mainly sticks to Suiton jutsu and the usage of his surujin."

Naruto acted annoyed that his skills had been told to all of the Konoha genin. In reality, he didn't really care. That information was a decoy planted by the Sandaime, which was done for all Kawa-nin, so they had paperwork to get in and out of shinobi-only places without flashing their Kawa-nin identification papers.

Kabuto's information also proved that he was a plant from the Sandaime, as a ninja's background required Chuunin-level clearance.

"And lastly, Sabaku no Gaara. His teammates are actually his siblings, Temari and Kankuro. His sensei is Baki, the Wind Master of Suna. His team has completed 1 D-rank, 11 C-rank, 22 B-rank, and 8 A-rank missions. Also, he has allegedly never even been scratched on a single mission, which is completely unheard of. He has virtually no techniques, besides his manipulation of sand, which is said to be very deadly."

Naruto almost frowned at this. There was no way that Kabuto could get this kind of information, even if he was a Chuunin plant. Ninja villages did not publish their ninjas background information, and the Sandaime would not risk a spy village just to get information on a genin. Kabuto was starting to become very suspicious, and Naruto would definitely be watching him.

Kabuto kept on talking, oblivious to Naruto's suspicion as he kept it well hidden.

"Alright, I'm feeling really generous so I'll help you out again. There are genin from every Hidden Village so watch out. The Suna, Kiri, and Ame genin are usually very bloodthirsty, so be prepared. Also, there's a new village at these exams. I wouldn't be too worried though. Oto doesn't look all that strong."

Naruto tensed his muscles as he felt some minor killing intent fill the room. Naruto decided to sit and wait everything out. Suddenly, three ninja appeared around Kabuto. He managed to avoid all of the hits, but then he fell to his knees and starting throwing up.

"Don't talk about what you don't know, trash," said the lead shinobi who had a large metal gauntlet on his arm.

This time, Naruto couldn't stop the frown forming on his face. The Oto shinobi seemed to know exactly when to attack and who to attack. It smelled far to much like a set-up. Kabuto had just went from one of the Sandaime's plant to a spy from another village or, even worse, a traitor.

Naruto looked to Sorana, who nodded. Immediately, five small kikai flew out from the bottom of her pants. The bugs had instructions to tell her father, Shibi, the duo's suspicions about Kabuto. Shibi would then pass on the message to the Hokage.

"Alright, maggots, cool it!" yelled a loud, deep voice. All of the genin in the room turned to look at the blackboard where the sound came from. The voice belonged to a large ox of a man. He was very intimidating and wore a bandana.

"My name is Morino Ibiki, and I will be the proctor of the first exam. Now go find the chair that has your name on it. If you switch names on the chairs, sit next to your teammates, or take longer than 30 seconds to find your seat, you and your teammates will be kicked out of the exam."

Immediately, all of the genin rushed to their seats. Naruto's clone, Ryuuyi, had to be very careful to not be dispersed in all the hubbub.

Naruto was seated next to a male from Iwa and the kunoichi, Temari, from Suna. Naruto grinned, it was finally time for a little fun. He hadn't let out his prankster side in awhile, and now was a perfect time to let the beast run wild.

Naruto muted out Ibiki's rules. He was sure the rules were very scary and intimidating, yadda yadda, who cares. He was going through to the second round no matter what he did, so he did the one thing he did best: tune out a lecture. And he had already been briefed about his job so he wasn't going to miss anything.

Eventually though, Ibiki stopped talking and silence fell over the classroom. The first five minutes was utter silence as the Chuunin-hopefuls read through the nine questions, tried to come up with an answer, and then finally realize the true point of the exercise.

And Naruto had no doubt that everyone would figure out the hidden purpose. After all, it was basically in a ninja's job description to cheat. Naruto was also pretty sure that Ibiki had dropped quite a few hints in his little talk that would point the ninja in the right direction.

Finally, although the sound didn't increase at all, people started cheating. And Naruto's smirk seemed to spread from ear to ear.

A Taki shinobi was sitting in front of Naruto was using a very obvious water technique to cheat. The technique in question created a film over the user's sheet as well as another sheet of paper. Whatever was written on the first was copied onto the second.

The Taki-nin had fortunately chosen one of the Chuunin, planted into the classroom to provide the answers to the questions, to copy of off. The Chuunin had of course noticed the slight shine on her paper and had already motioned to Ibiki.

Naruto kicked the Taki shinobi's chair and he spun around. "What the hell was that for, jackass!"

Ibiki inclined his head towards Naruto, showing some slight praise.

"Number 45, 67, and 94, please leave the room."

The Taki shinobi got up disgruntled, but cowed enough by Ibiki's glare to not try anything to get back at Naruto.

Looking around, he saw Sorana's kikai in an airborne battle with Shino's. She was apparently trying to prove that she was fit to be a ninja in the only way that she could: by beating his ass.

She had also managed to knock out two other teams while still whipping Shino. Sorana wasn't going to knock Shino out of the competition, but she would definitely show him up.

Naruto spent the next 30 minutes knocking teams out, managing to get everyone out within 10 feet of him besides the Suna chick Temari. It was kind of ticking him off, but Hokage-jiji had said to only take out the people who were below Chuunin-level in information gathering techniques.

Unfortunately, Temari was well above Chuunin-level and he honestly couldn't bring himself to disqualify someone so qualified.

Finally, the first 45 minutes were over and Ibiki stepped up. "Time for the 10th question. I must tell you now though, if you do not answer this question correctly, you will be restricted from ever becoming a Chuunin."

There were various shrieks of outrage and indignation from the gathered ninja. Ibiki quickly shut them up however. "All of the Kage from the various villages represented here have agreed. They agree that if a ninja cannot answer this question correctly they do not deserve, nor will they ever, the right to become a Chuunin. And before you ask if I have proof, here it is."

Ibiki pulled out a large scroll and unfurled it. Upon the scroll was the recognizable signatures and seals of each of the Kage from each of the villages. This cut down all of the objections immediately. No ninja was willing to go against their Kage after all.

"Now, I will give you the time to decide if you do not want to continue. Also, be aware that if you leave the exam, your teammates will also be disqualified. You have five minutes to make your decision."

There was maybe thirty seconds of no movements before one hand slowly made its way into the air. Ibiki acknowledged the shinobi, and the whole team left the room.

That one hand seemed to encourage the other ninja wavering on the edge and there was suddenly a wave of people heading out the door. Naruto decided to add to the drama and began crying as if the pressure was way too much for him to handle and he couldn't even bring himself to raise his hand.

The number of hands being raised increased exponentially after Naruto's 'breakdown.' With Naruto's head in his hands, he could hide the smirk forming on his face.

Finally the number of hands finished, and Ibiki waited an additional fifteen seconds or so before finally halting the surrender period. "Alright, now that we've got the cowards out of the way," Ibiki paused dramatically here. "You pass!"

Naruto stopped the slight shudders that he had had running through his body to mimic the sight of somebody sobbing. The other genin again started yelling in confusion.

"Silent, maggots. Let me explain before you get all uppity. The first nine questions dealt with your ability to analyze a situation, as well as your ability to gather information without being caught. Of course, in this exam, we allowed you five chances. In real life, you only have one chance and if you screw it up, you're dead."

"And information is worth a life. Risking your life for information that may save hundreds of your comrades is the highest sacrifice. Of course, sometimes your information is incorrect, but you have to risk it."

Ibiki untied the bandana around his head. The bandana covered tons of scars, burns, and screw holes. "People will go to any length to get information, just remember that."

"The purpose of the tenth question was to test your resolve. As a Chuunin, you will often be required to take on missions where the outcome is not certain. Where you or someone on your team may lose their lives. If you cannot work up the balls to risk your career, how can you risk your lives?"

"Now as I said before, you pass. The next examiner will be showing up shortly."

As he said this, one of the windows exploded inwardly. A spinning ball of chaos shot inwards with the shattered glass. A banner shot off the ball stating proudly "The Sexy and Single Mitarashi Anko-The Second Examiner!"

"Aww, Ibiki-kun, you only left me 18 teams to play with? They're only genin, you can't scare them that badly."

"Whatever, Anko. At least I left you some good teams to play with."

"Well, I guess I'll have to make the best of a bad situation. Alright, gakis, head to Training Ground 44, otherwise known as the Forest of Death!"

**So that's the end of another chapter. How did you like meeting the rookie 12? And Kabuto? Let me know. And please, constructive reviews!**


	9. The Forest of Death

**Sorry for the long wait. Life just got in the way and I'll leave it at that. So it's been brought to my attention that a Beta may or may not be required so if anyone is interested in the position, please let me know. Also, some people want a sketch of what Sorana looks like. I'm a writer, not a artist so she looks most closely to Terumi Mei, except with black hair that only goes down to the small of her back and Sorana wears a different outfit. If anyone wants to give it a try drawing her, I would definitely appreciate it.**

**So some of you did not like the way Shino was portrayed in the last chapter. And I answer this with a question: Did any of you like Neji when he was first introduced in the anime/manga? Of course not. He was an idiot who almost killed his cousin and preached about fate. Now though he is a pretty cool guy. That's how Shino is going to be. Not every character can be sunshine and roses at the beginning. Because as a writer, where else can the characters be improved? So this chapter is the second exam and it also gets into where Shino got his offensive views from. Hope you enjoy and remember to review!**

Naruto, Sorana, and Naruto's Kage Bunshin sat alone at the gate that they had been assigned by Anko. She had arranged to not have a Chuunin instructor at their gate so they could head in early and set up some traps.

However, they were still awaiting orders from Koharu-ba-chan, who had said that she would send a caterpillar summon to them.

A rustle from underneath their feet alerted the duo to the presence of something. They both jumped backwards, pulling out a kunai in the process.

Then a small hole appeared where they had been standing and a cute little mandible appeared. The mandible was followed by a foot-long body with thousands of little legs propelling the centipede summon towards one of her summoners and the blonde boy standing next to her.

"Hi there," the little centipede said bubbly. "I'm Kashitan, and Koharu-sama sent me to give you your orders." The little centipede's tone changed from bubbly to serious in an instant. "She said to burn your scroll and then to go take out 3 teams of examinees. You are to burn their scrolls and ensure the genin are knocked out for the rest of the exam. After you have taken out the three teams, you are to locate the genin Kabuto. After he has been located, you will summon Anbu using this seal."

With that, Kashitan spat out a seal and Sorana picked it up, finding it surprisingly dry.

"Homura-sensei realizes how strong you are, but she doesn't want to take any chances and is sending a whole Anbu squad after Kabuto. You two will be responsible for capturing his teammates. You may not kill them, and you have full control over what you decide to do with that team's scroll. You now have 15 minutes before the other teams are released into the forest. Have fun!"

The caterpillar summon disappeared with a small poof of smoke. Naruto and Sorana nodded to each before entering the gate and splitting off in opposite directions. They were going to bobby trap every entrance and meet each other on the exact opposite side of the Forest of Death.

Naruto chuckled silently. This was definitely the best assignment he'd ever had and was likely ever to have. First he got to play with the little genins' minds during the first exam and now he got to scare them a little and show the genin how big some fish could get in the ocean.

Naruto was currently on his third of nine gates that he had to trap. "Doton: Iwagakure no Jutsu," he whisper. He melded into the stone of the large wall that encircled the Forest of Death.

He went around the large gate that one of the genin teams from Ame was currently waiting at. His hand appeared out of the wall and placed paper bombs on the hinges of the gate. They would explode when the gate opened and maybe even land on the baby genin.

He moved on to the next gate, keeping his jutsu active. He strung extra-thin ninja wire across the entrance. When any of the wires were tripped, they would launch dulled kunai at the place where the line had been tripped.

Naruto was having the time of his life. He was basically being paid to prank. The next gate he dup a trap pit and the one after that he tied a gigantic log to a wire. The log would fall and aim towards the gate once it was opened.

After five more minutes of trap setting, Naruto headed to the rendezvous point. Sorana was already there, sitting on the top of the wall with her legs swinging.

"What took you so long Naruto-kun?" she asked.

Naruto sat down next to her. "You know how I am, Sorana-chan. I was having fun. You should of seen some of the traps I set up. If I wanted to make the traps deadly, they could probably kill a jounin."

"That's quite impressive Naruto-kun."

Naruto squirmed a little bit before opening his mouth, and then closing it again. He tried one more time, before finally managing to spit out his words. "Can I ask you something, Sorana-chan?"

"Of course, Naruto-kun. I can tell that something is bothering you."

"Sorana-chan, what happened to Shino? He's not at all like your parents. They're so nice and he's...not."

Sorana sighed. She had wondered when Naruto's curiosity would run out. She was honestly surprised that Naruto hadn't pulled her aside as soon as Shino started being so rude.

"Well, Shino was raised by the Aburame Council almost exclusively. As you know, Mother became deathly ill three years after my birth. Father's time was split between caring for my mother, running the clan, and developing a new breed of kikai that he is still working on. Shino and myself were both given nannies."

"My nanny was an elderly Aburame woman named Shiya. She was a little standoffish but raised me until I turned five where I was so busy with training at headquarters that I didn't require a nanny and just lived with my parents."

"Shino did not get so lucky. Shino was nannied by my grandmother and, unknown to my father until just recently, indoctrinated by my grandfather. My grandfather is extremely traditional and basically brainwashed Shino."

"Now before I go further, I have to explain my grandfather's rhetoric. He believes that having Aburame women on the field is a waste. He feels that their abilities are much more useful in the hives. He has evidence that the kikai mature and evolve much faster in female Aburame than in male Aburame."

"Therefore, grandfather believes that the female clans members should stay in the hives to improve the abilities of the kikai. He is also against females in the field because of this advanced maturation of the kikai in their bodies. He feels that if a female Aburame is ever captured or even found dead, their bodies will reveal much more information to the enemy." 

"He has only recently created a seal that will utterly destroy an Aburame corpse once the clan member had died or is captured. Grandfather has recently began pushing more females into the field if they so wish it, and some males have joined the breeders because they do not enjoy battling."

"Shino of course took this rhetoric and put a horrifying spin on it. Even with the new seal that grandfather has created, Shino still doesn't believe that I belong in the field. He believes that that the Aburame women can best serve their purpose in the Clan compound. He does not, however, believe that Kunoichi are worthless. Kunoichi have a purpose, besides even seduction, he just does not agree with Aburame kunoichi."

"Shino believes so strongly in logic and every "insect fulfilling its purpose in the hive." I too strongly believe in logic, but my interactions with you have taught me that there are more than one way to solve a problem logically. Shino has not yet learned this lesson, and if his way is logical, then it is the only way."

"But I hope to someday change that. Someday, Shino and I will truly be brother and sister, someday..." Sorana trailed off wistfully.

"I'll help you, Sorana-chan," Naruto said softly. "Now I think we've given the other team enough of a head start. Let's go knock some genins out."

Sorana laughed quietly, glad that Naruto was trying his best to cheer her up. Sorana hopped up from her sitting position on the wall and pulled Naruto up to stand next to her.

"Okay, Naruto-kun, but I get to take out the first genin team all by myself," she said, adding a little growl to intimidate Naruto.

"Sure, sure," he said. "Whatever you say." Naruto definitely wasn't going to risk pissing his partner off. He had done it before, once to be precise, and it definitely wasn't going to happen again if he could help it. Sorana was also a very level-headed person, so Naruto knew that he would've definitely screwed up big time to tick off his amazing partner.

The Kawa-nin hopped into the trees, propelling themselves threw the branches with their chakra. It was only about two minutes of tree-hopping that Naruto spotted a few signs of ninjas passing.

Naruto shook his head slowly. He had been trained to track the paths left behind by jounin-level ninjas, who barely left any evidence at all of their passing, and now he was tracking genin. The difference is skill levels was quite astonishing. There were bent twigs and scuffle marks on the branches, as well as pieces of ripped clothes on some sharp thorns.

Judging from the type and quality of the ripped clothing on the path that the duo were currently following, the genin hailed from Kumo. Naruto and Sorana sped up their pace, catching up to the Kumo genin within five minutes.

The genin in question were sitting in a clearing, clearly planning their next move. They seemed to be quite smart, for they had a set of clones hiding in a nearby tree. It was a nice bit of reverse psychology. The genin would attack the set of clones first, thinking that the genin in the clearing were clones. There was also quite a bit of chuunin-level traps around the clones, and only a couple trap pits surrounding the real team.

It was quite a shame that the Kawa-nin had stumbled across the Kumo-nin. They had all the callings of a great chuunin, they just didn't have good luck. And that was the message that the Sandaime was trying to get across. No matter how strong you are, there is always someone stronger than you.

Naruto held back, while Sorana headed forward. What came next was the classic example of why genin were kept from fighting high-level ninjas. Sorana appeared behind one of the Kumo nin and slammed the ring of her kunai into his head, knocking the shinobi out instantly.

It was only when their comrade hit the ground that the other two shinobi noticed someone attacked them. By then, though, it was much too late. Sorana had already slammed the backend of her kunai into the kunoichi of the group and the last conscious member of the team was giving Sorana's kikai quite a feast.

While the kikai finished eating the last dredges of the boy's chakra, Sorana began searching for the scroll in the ninja's pouches and clothing. Surprisingly enough, the scroll was hidden in the kunoichi's ninja pouch.

She pulled the scroll out and set it on the ground away from the Kumo nin. "Katon: Shitai Konzetsu," she murmured. The scroll disappeared into ash and her chakra didn't even spike. It was quite a useful jutsu.

Not far from the clearing, Naruto and Sorana stumbled fortuitously onto the scene of two genin team duking it out. The team from Ame was currently kicking the Suna team's collective ass.

Sorana, still in the middle of a bad mood, called the Ame team, who looked like they could take a little punishment. That meant Naruto only got to knock out the already suffering Suna team.

It was honestly very easy. Naruto appeared behind the poor souls, two kunai twirling into hands. He slammed the kunai, ring end down, into the heads of both males on the team. The kunoichi spun quickly to see who had just taken out her teammates, but not quick enough to stop the chop to her neck that sent her into darkness.

Naruto looked around to see Sorana standing around her own three unconscious victims. She was sending a glare his way, and Naruto remembered what he was supposed to be doing instead of sight seeing.

He started ruffling through the Suna nin's gear, finding it in a scroll on the smaller male's body, hidden in the ruffles of his flowing shirt.

He destroyed it, before his head shot up. His Kage Bunshin had just popped somewhere. Naruto had had it scout the area for Kabuto but it had been caught in a wave of sand, but before it had the clone had seen something.

"Sorana-chan, where is Shino right now?" he asked, the urgency in his voice stopping Sorana from chewing him out for bringing up her brother again so soon.

"My kikai smell his hive only about half a mile away, to the northeast. Why?" Sorana asked, deadly serious.

"My Kage Bunshin, 'Ryuuyi', just got dispelled by a gigantic wave of sand. Before it did though, it saw a fluffy white dog. I'm assuming the little puppy is Akamaru, so Shino should be close by. And this sand-user is quite dangerous. We need to get Team 8 out of there, and then we can track down Kabuto."

"Alright, Naruto. Follow me."

The partners took off, charging through the forest. Naruto was determined to save Shino so he could kick his ass for treating Sorana so badly.

They arrived just in time. Team 8 was currently dodging wave after wave after wave of sand, but they were obviously being herded somewhere. The sand-user, who Naruto now remembered as Gaara from Kabuto's information cards, was standing still and letting his sand use all the work. His teammates were just watching.

Naruto ran through some handsigns, while uncapping one of his water bottles. "Suiton: Hachi Shokushu." Water poured out of the bottle and formed around Naruto's back. Eight tentacles formed out of the water and stood waving.

Naruto jumped down to the lowest branch in front of where Team 8 was being corralled. They jumped right in front of where Naruto was, and three tentacles grabbed the team around the waist, hoisting them up into the tree line. Sorana ushered them away, barely making eye contact with the brother whose life she had helped safe.

Gaara sent sand at the tree that his prey had escaped up. His attention was quickly taken though as a blonde boy that he had been watching in the first exam jumped in front of him.

Gaara grinned fiercely. Here was some worthy blood for his mother, not the cowardly stuff that would have only held her over for a day.

Gaara sent a wave of sand at the newest opponent to his existence. Naruto flipped over the attack handily, before speeding towards his red-headed opponent.

Yet again wave of sand tried to halt his progress, but a whip of water whacked the wave. The water was absorbed into the sand and slowed it down enough for Naruto to shoot past it.

Naruto was basically playing a game of cat and mouse and for once he wasn't the cat. Not that Gaara would beat him, Naruto was too stubborn to allow a one-trick pony to kick his ass, but Naruto wasn't the one determining the flow and tempo of the battle like he was used to.

Naruto sidestepped another wave, using another water tentacle to slap the pesky thing away. Naruto pulled a kunai out of his pouch and tied an exploding tag onto it. He chucked it at Gaara's face.

A huge wave of sand appeared, catching and covering the kunai about 5 feet from the Suna-nin's face. As Naruto had hoped though, the sand blocked Gaara's view of him and Naruto would definitely capitalize on the opportunity.

Gaara was definitely skilled, Naruto thought scornfully, but he didn't have the combat experience required to take out a truly-skilled shinobi.

Naruto used Shunshin to appear behind Gaara, surujin poised to wrap around Gaara's skinny neck. A tendril of sand appeared and knocked the surujin away, before turning into a spike aimed to puncture Naruto's abdomen.

Only the swipe of one of the tentacles still attached to Naruto's back saved him from such an injury. Naruto jumped backwards, his thoughts racing onto how Gaara had stopped him.

The only way that Gaara could have stopped him was an autonomous technique, which were extraordinarily rare. They were all A- or S-ranked techniques and required a ton of chakra, which Gaara simply did not have access to as a genin.

This of course meant that Gaara was not a genin and was a Suna plant who had been entered into the exams to spy on Konoha and her secrets. Naruto's visage hardened. Before, he was just going to stall for enough time to allow Team 8 to get far enough way with Sorana before he would hall it back to his partner.

Now though, he had to capture Gaara, as well as his teammates/siblings for questioning, Ibiki-style.

Gaara seemed to have stopped playing with his food and sent an enormous tsunami of sand towards Naruto. Again, the sand blocked off Gaara's view of Naruto, and Naruto used this advantage to create two Mizu Bunshin out of the water tentacles on his back, who proceeded to shunshin out of the way and towards the other two member of the Suna team.

Naruto breathed in deeply, pulling out one of the scrolls on his belt. "Eremento Sanmai," he muttered. Instantly, all of the sand that had been swirling towards him, bent on his utter annihilation, was sucked into the seal.

The seal began glowing brown, and Naruto took a step towards Gaara. With each step that Naruto took, more sand was sucked into the scroll and the more fear that occupied Gaara's face.

Finally, Naruto stood only a foot away from Gaara, and sand was being pulled off of Gaara's very skin. When the very last particle had been pulled away from Gaara, Naruto intoned, "Fuin."

The seal flashed one last time, and Naruto calmly rolled up the scroll. He had of course practiced rolling it up and placing the scroll back in its place on his belt in less than a second, but taking it slowly showed a cockiness that would instill even more fear into Gaara.

It showed that Naruto knew he could kill Gaara anytime that he wanted to, and he was deciding if he really wanted to. It was quite intimidating.

Gaara was backing away slowly. He had clearly never been so outmatched before. Naruto shook his head slowly. There was a reason that fuinjutsu was considered the strongest of all the shinobi arts. Basically, a ninja could develop a counter to every other ninja branch out there with a simple seal.

Naruto unraveled another scroll, plucking out a simple tag as soon as it was fully unrolled. He pushed it onto Gaara's head, and he collapsed immediately. Naruto smirked slightly. Gaara hadn't even tried to run once his sand had been sealed up. Of course, Naruto would've caught him easily but it really ruined some of the Kawa-nin's fun.

Naruto glanced down at the seal on Gaara's head. It had worked perfectly. It froze all chakra within the victim's body and then knocked them out. It worked quite well and there was no chakra spike like in the Nemuri no Jutsu.

Naruto glanced over to his Mizu Bunshin. They were currently hauling their packages, Temari and Kankuro, over to where Gaara lay. They had been knocked out the good old fashioned way, the blunt side of a kunai to the head. The siblings had been so at ease, knowing that no genin could ever beat Gaara that the Mizu Bunshin had easily knocked the two out.

The Mizu Bunshin threw two scrolls towards Naruto, who caught them reflexively. They were an Earth and Heaven scroll, respectively.

Naruto placed another seal on Gaara's back that would summon the Anbu hovering around the edge of the Forest of Death. There was also a short written summary of what had happened, provided by one of the Mizu Bunshin who had apparently had nothing to do while waiting for Naruto to get his showboating over with.

Naruto activated the seal, and then turned to the Mizu Bunshin, who dispelled themselves. Naruto caught all of the water in the canteen that he had previously emptied.

He then left the clearing, following a small kikai that Sorana had thoughtfully left behind. Sorana and Team 8 were hidden in the roots of a large tree about 15 minutes at a chuunin-level speed.

Naruto hopped into the small hole that was hidden from the tree level, still following the kikaichu. Sorana was standing, while Team 8 sat huddled together and shivering from the massive bloodlust that Gaara had been capable of exuding.

"Kiba," Naruto said. The dog-boy looked up, tremors still visibly wracking his body. "Gaara has been taken care of and has been disqualified from the exam. You will not have to worry about him in the finals."

The Inuzuka nodded gratefully and looked to be about to turn back into his team's huddle but Naruto's voice halted him. "Hokage-sama wants to talk to me and Sorana about something we saw in the forest earlier and so we're being pulled out of the exam. Ryuuyi is already talking to the Hokage right now and we need to get over there."

The lie was a little weak but he knew the little genin would take it hook, line, and sinker. There was no reason why they would suspect him so they wouldn't even bother to think about his excuse. "Our team already had both scrolls, and I didn't feel like destroying them or anything, so you guys can have them."

Naruto threw them to Kiba and he caught them, tucking them both safely into his jacket. "We've got to go now though. You can stay here as long as you want, but I'd suggest you just get to the Tower as soon as possible and rest off the stress there."

Naruto nodded at Team 8 before heading out the exit. Even from outside though, Naruto could still hear the goings-on of the hidey-hole. Especially Shino's life. "Sister, thank you for rescuing my team and I. Perhaps your purpose is not to be a breeder. I need to think over my logic."

Naruto's face was slowly covered in a grin. Yeap, he had known that saving Shino had been a good idea.

Sorana exited Team 8's hiding spot. There was a slight smile on her face, and one distinct tear track coming from her right eye.

"C'mon, Naruto," she said, her voice bright with hope. "It's time to go find Kabuto."

**Jutsu List**

Doton: Iwagakure no Jutsu [Earth Release: Rocking Hiding Technique]

Rank: C

Description: This jutsu allows the user to blend in and merge with surrounding rocks. It allows the user to move unseen, which assists in attacking and escaping.

Katon: Shitai Konzetsu no Jutsu [Fire Release: Corpse Extermination Technique]  
>Rank: B<br>Description: This is the skill ANBU use to eradicate corpses, for various reasons like containing important secrets. The jutsu creates a small, hot-burning fire that releases no smoke. It quickly consumes a corpse.

Bunshin no Jutsu [Clone Technique]

Rank: C

Description: Sorana uses a Mushi Bunshin [Bug Clone] while Naruto uses a Mizu Bunshin [Water Clone] and the occasional Kage Bunshin [Shadow Clone].

Suiton: Hachi Shokushu no Jutsu [Water Release: Eight Tentacles Technique]

Rank: D

Description: A skill in which is used to give the user additional limbs. Gathering chakra into the water, the user can create up to eight arms upon their back that resemble the tentacles of an octopus. The tentacles are approximately six feet in length, and are capable of attacking in all directions.

Eremento Sanmai Fuin [Elements Absorption Seal]

Rank: A

Description: A seal that can absorb any kind of elemental ninjutsu. There is no limit to the amount of jutsu that the Seal can absorb, but only one element can be absorbed at a time. Naruto has around 10 of these Seals all inked onto the same scroll that he carries around on his belt.

Nemuri no Jutsu [Sleep Technique]  
>Rank: D<br>Description: A Genjutsu technique where the ninja places their hand on their target's shoulder and forces them into a deep slumber. A useful technique when subterfuge is involved with a mission, but utterly useless in combat. The technique only works when the target is already injured or exhausted.

**So that's the end of that. Let me know what you liked, what you didn't, and what you would like to see next time. Of course, next chapter is the fight with Kabuto and I will definitely try to make it interesting. Your reviews are what keep me writing, so keep them coming. And again, I need a Beta!**


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